My jaw feels like it's going to drop off at any moment. It has been aching and hurting SO much today! I had to make another dentist appointment for this Wednesday so I can see what the hell is going on. I feel like crying.
Anyway, I figured I would do that review of "Divergent" by Veronica Roth today. So the story follows this girl called Beatrice Prior who lives in a futuristic world similar to ours. Only, the world is now divided into 5 factions (groups/communities) which are: Abnegation, Amity, Dauntless, Candor and Erudite.
The Abnegation blame war and conflict on selfishness, therefore they are very selfless and giving people. The Amity blame war and conflict on a lack of peace, therefore they are very kind and harmonious. The Dauntless blame war and conflict on cowardice, therefore they are very brave and strong. The Candor blame war and conflict on lies, therefore they are very truthful and honest. The Erudite blame war and conflict on ignorance, therefore they are very intelligent.
You belong to the faction in which your parents do with your family until you are 16. At this age, you take something called an aptitude test which basically determines which faction would suit you best. After this, you go to the choosing ceremony where you decide whether you want to stay in your faction with your family or transfer to another faction and abandon your family. If you transfer factions this is seen as an act of betrayal and your parents and faction often don't forgive you. Although it doesn't really matter as you are never allowed to see them again anyway if you do transfer factions.
Beatrice and her brother, Caleb, belong to the Abnegation faction with their parents. When the day comes for the aptitude test, Beatrice discovers her results come back as inconclusive and the person that does the test on her informs her that she is known as a Divergent. This mean that Beatrice is a mix of the factions. She is also told that it is very dangerous to be a Divergent and will be killed of anyone finds out so Beatrice tries to keep this information to herself, but she is very curious as to why being a Divergent is so bad and why she is one.
At the choosing ceremony, both Beatrice and her brother shock their family by choosing new factions to join. Beatrice joins Dauntless and Caleb joins Erudite. When Beatrice joins Dauntless she quickly discovers it is very tough faction to become part of. Everyone first has to go through initiation (which differs with each faction) before they can become an official member of the faction. If you fail the initiation, are kicked out of a faction or fail to choose a faction to join then you become factionles and have to live on the streets and underground. Its kind of like becoming a homeless person and you have very little resources to rely on or food and drink. In Dauntless, Beatrice has to complete very dangerous and physical tasks for initiation to prove her bravery and strength. For example they jump on and off moving trains, being told to jump off of large buildings (without being told there is a net at the bottom to catch you), train to fight with other initiates of Dauntless, etc. She makes a mix of fiends and enemies during her time in the initiation process of becoming a part of the faction.
But meanwhile, the Erudite have been becoming very frustrated with Beatrice's old faction, the Abnegation and secretly plan war on them with the help of the leaders of Dauntless. This is information that Beatrice is unaware of until one day she notices all members and initiates of Dauntless have become controlled by the faction leaders through this drug that was inserted in them. Everyone was told that it was just a transmitter to track where they all are. Beatrice was also given this needle but it does not work on her as she is a Divergent and can resist such technologies and serums. The drug is designed to control a person and turn them into a soldier to go attack Abnegation. Beatrice cannot let this happen as she does not want her parents to be killed.
During Beatrice's training to become a member of Dauntless, she meets a guy called Four who is her instructor in training (Four turns out to be a nickname, his real name is Tobias). The 2 of them slowly fall in love throughout the story. He also turns out to be a Divergent and also resists this drug that controls everyone in Dauntless. So when everyone else is unknowingly going out to kill Abnegation, Beatrice and Tobias go out to try and save their world and save Abnegation.
It's a very complex story but also very, VERY good. What I like about it most is how thrilling it is. I think that's the best way to describe this book. At every moment something exciting is happening and you really feel full of adrenaline when reading and connecting with Beatrice as she goes on this crazy roller coaster of a journey. It's mainly the fact that she joins Dauntless and they are very into doing wildly dangerous activities in which Beatrice participates in. It's very exciting to read and I can only imagine how action packed it will be as a movie (which is going to be made). I hope they don't ruin it though...
Another thing I love is this futuristic aspect to it, which actually I've seen in a few recent popular books. I find it really interesting to read and think about. It really does draw in your attention! It's so possible for any of these things to happen in society anytime in the near or distant future, which really makes it that much more real and worrying.
Another good thing about this book is the protagonist, Beatrice. I like how she's not your average lead girl that's super pretty or blames everything on herself or is really weak and pity's others. She is very strong willed and brave which is a great characteristic for girl characters, I think. It is described that he is not completely ugly but she is also not pretty which makes me think "Wow... That's a change." But I was looking at the IMDB casting for the movie and the girl playing Beatrice is actually very pretty so... I don't know. But yeah, as for the blaming everything on herself I'm mainly referring to many characters in books nowadays such as Katniss from The Hunger Games". Characters tend to think if something bad happens then its all their fault and that they're terrible people and how it would be so much better if they were dead. But none of this goes on in Beatrice's mind, which I find very refreshing.
Anyway, I love this book so freaking much. It's written very well as well which is great. It's not super toned down as if the author was talking to a child but it's also not using words or language techniques that are too beyond my years and that I can't fully comprehend. I mean don't get me wrong I'm very good with words and was always super great in English class but I don't know every single word in the human dictionary ok? And I feel like some authors can go a little far and do write their books quite difficult for some teenagers. Every reader is different I guess and maybe some authors anticipate a slight older audience.
So yeah, it was super easy to read and the book wasn't too long to the point where you were sick of it, it ended on the perfect part before the sequel book "Insurgent" was to begin. I'm reading "Insurgent" now and I'm loving it, too! I'll do a review of it once I'm done. I also heard that there's a 3rd "Divergent" book coming out, the sequel to "Insurgent" which I find freaking awesome. So I guess the story isn't going to end at the end of "Insurgent" which is what I thought. Kind of happy about that!
I also bought the book "Enders Game" today which I'm excited to read as I've heard great things. I'm not sure how much money I have exactly right now so I'm not going to buy all the books of the "Enders Game" series just yet. I'll discuss when I've started reading it though! Right now I just have the first book.
So yeah make sure to pick up the jaw dropping (see what I did there) book, "Divergent"! It will blow your mind!
Bye for now :)
☯♥☮ Abbie
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