Divergent by Veronica Roth [Review]

For a while now I’ve been looking for a book series to be utterly swept away by. After weeks of mediocre (but enjoyable) reads I came across Divergent, via a YouTube comment. Compelled, I Googled the title and became further enamoured with its concept. I needed the book immediately, so I ordered it without a second thought and here we are today. My gut instinct was on the money with this series and I am obsessed, much the way I was beginning The Hunger Games.

Five stars normally seems excessive, but not for Divergent I literally could not put it down. The premise is a dystopian world where all citizens are split into one of five factions on their sixteenth birthday. These five factions are based on a prevailing trait or way of living: Abnegation (selflessness), Amity (peacefulness), Candor (honesty), Dauntless (bravery) and Erudite (intelligence). The mantra of the world is faction over blood, so when you choose your loyalty switches. 

For a dystopian novel some might say it is strange that this is all we know about this world, the what and not the why, but I found it oddly satisfying and found myself easily being swept away into this society despite not knowing how it came to be. The whole process is gripping: the aptitude test, the Choosing Ceremony and the initiation. I felt hungry to know how each stage went and where the next one would head. I couldn’t stop after completing one; I needed to keep going.

I also get the overwhelming sense that the lack of world building is intentional and that we aren’t meant to know much of the city’s history purely because its own citizens don’t know. We are only supposed to know as much as the characters and it becomes quite clear early on that they don’t know a lot. This helps to see the society through their eyes, bias and all, and means that any later revelations (which I know will come) will be a surprise to us as well as our cast. It is claustrophobic and closed-off, heightening the sense of danger.

That is just the setting, just the society. This is before the plot, characters or relationships come into play. I utterly lost myself at the start and from then on in it was action-packed, pacey and heart-wrenching. Our main character is sixteen-year-old Beatrice (later Tris) who leaves Abnegation (and her parents) for Dauntless. I loved her. She felt real to me, your typical sixteen-year-old with typical concerns, which was very refreshing from those MCs who are automatically self-assured or badass (Rose Hathaway and Katniss Everdeen).

Some criticise Tris for being weak, but I never felt that. She sits comfortable between popular and disliked. She doesn’t cause people to fall in love with her or like her instantly upon meeting them, she has a good mixture of friends and enemies, she doesn’t automatically become badass upon choosing Dauntless but earns it by working hard to cover her weaknesses. She is all in all a very real girl, with very real fears. I loved her narrative voice and loved seeing this world from inside her head, biases and all. 

Most of all I loved how the (inevitable) romance side of things was handled. The word I’d choose to describe it is organic. There was no instalove (a pet peeve of mine in YA novels) and the plot was never jeopardised for the sake of the growing relationship. It snuck up on our MC and started tentatively, carefully. By the end of Divergent the relationship is just starting, an utter strength of the book to not go all goo-goo-eyed at the first sign of attraction. Again, very realistic and very much how you’d expect a teenage romance to go. All the teenage couples in Divergent are realistic and nothing like the proclamations of eternal love other YA books dish out on a regular occurrence.

Finally, the plot itself. Divergent mostly focuses on Tris and her friends as they progress through the Dauntless initiation, but you definitely get a sense of tensions rising in the mechanics of their world. You start out with a perfect system (to the characters) and learn about its flaws the more Tris experiences of it. Therefore, I never felt that all the major plot elements were rammed in at the end. I felt that the explosion of action at the finale was natural and a result of a well-paced novel. There were many twists and turns that I didn’t expect, which added to the drive to devour this book in record time.

Overall it is punchy and brilliant paced, the plot and action creeping, creeping until you are thrown head first into a dangerous situation. It isn't afraid to get emotional or pull at your heartstrings, packing punches at pivotal moments. I get the sense that we’ll learn more about this world as the series progresses and that we’ll find not everything is as it seems. Right now though Divergent has set the bar very high for the other books and I can’t wait until I get my hands on Insurgent. An absolutely fantastic novel.

5/5 stars