Since this is January, it is safe to admit that I have been on Holiday Break for the past 2 weeks. This has good news and bad news that go with it. The Bad News: I got the flu the very first day of my break. Boo! That was very unfortunate and I am still a teensy bit bummed about how much a loafed around on my sofa. The Good News: the flu gave me reason to get some much needed personal reading done. For once I wasn't grading papers, overseeing my children's homework, or going to class at the university. No, I was absolutely free to get my read on!! And so I did. The book I want to discuss: Divergent.
On the author's blog, Divergent is given the following book description:
In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.
During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.
On this blog, I give Divergent the following review/description:
This book is fantastic!! I am a big fan of dystopian novels but honestly not all of them resonate well. Some, I find, seem more like political soapboxes neatly packaged than dystopian novels. With Divergent, I don't feel that way at all. It all follows a seemingly ordinary girl, Beatrice, who turns out to be a million times stronger than she first appears. She lives in a world where everyone is separated into factions. These factions are created in response to unsavory values that they blame the negativity of the world on. Beatrice belongs to Abnegation, who value selflessness. After turning 16, she is given an aptitude test to determine what faction she should truly be in. I love this aptitude test idea and with Beatrice, the test results determine that she is equally split between three totally different factions: Abnegation (selflessness), Erudite (intelligence), and Dauntless (bravery). This is why she is considered Divergent which means she can belong in more than one faction. She decides to leave her faction and join the Dauntless under the new name, Tris.
Tris is a spitfire that is not to be disregarded as a weakling. She fights each and every day to prove herself to her new family and has to overcome serious obstacles. By diving deeper into her new faction, she unearths plans that could destroy everything and everyone she has every known. Life as she has always known will be different.
It is truly an incredible novel and I am now a hardcore fan of the author, Veronica Roth. The sequel to Divergent is out and I plan on attempting to finish that novel before classes resume on Monday, January 7th. I am also pleased to announce that I recently found out that Divergent will be made into a movie. I hope the motion picture people do the novel justice because it would a tragedy for them to mess with such a strong storyline. And there you have it! My first book review/recommendation for your future paper cuts. I hope to hear some of your thoughts on this book and look forward to posting about its sequel in the upcoming days. Until then...Happy Reading!!!
-CM (currently reading "Insurgent" by V. Roth)
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