One choice... defines your beliefs...
One choice... determines your loyalties - forever...
Once choice can transform you.
In Beatrice Prior's dystopian world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue - Candor the honest, Erudite the intelligent, Abnegation the selfless, Dauntless the brave, and Amity the peaceful. On an appointed day of each year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will dedicate 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.
When I went to the book store that is very near to where I am staying at (I'm on vacation), I knew exactly what I was looking for: Divergent and Insurgent by Veronica Roth. I saw them on the shelves and I was excited. When I got back to my grandparents, I immediately went on Goodreads and marked it as "currently reading" and started reading it. From the first chapter, I was enthralled with the character, Beatrice "Tris" Prior, her life, the world, and everything about the book.
I loved how, like Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games Trilogy, Tris was strong-willed, but what I loved about her over Katniss was that she wasn't afraid to be a girl either and that she had compassion and shied away from weapons or violence, though that was partly because of her upbringing in Abnegation the Selfless.
Veronica Roth's character development of Tris and even Four (an amazing character himself) was incredible.
Even though Divergent is in the first-person point-of-view (POV) Ms. Roth had no trouble describing the setting with eloquence and a sense of perfection.
Tris was made a very a perfect character because of the flaws that Ms. Roth gave her.
The plot was fantastic, its twists and turns perfectly placed.
There is a bit of violence. A boy is stabbed in the eye with a butter knife, another boy jumps off of a ledge to his death, and there are repeated severe injuries from their training in fighting. Dozens of people die.
There is very little language. "h*ll" is used repeatedly, but that is as far as it goes. The only other cuss word is a made up word for the members of Abnegation "Stiffs", which if you want to know what that means, then you'll have to read the book.
When Tris is bullied she later tells Four that the bullies "touched her" and Four mistakes that for the inappropriate alternative. The bullies pull Tris' towel off, but she immediately re-covers herself with it. It is said several times that she "looks like a child" because she has "not fully filled out". One male character is man-handling her and says something to the effect of "I wonder what she has under there [her clothes]".
I recommend this book to 13-year-olds and up.
I thoroughly enjoyed Divergent, reading it in less that 24-hours, and am now reading Insurgent.
5 of 5 stars!
God bless,
Brian
No comments:
Post a Comment