Divergent

By Veronica Roth

487 Pages

Published by Katherine Tegen Books

★★★★★

By Mel

All I had to read was the first page of this book in the store and I knew I wanted to buy it. This story really hooked me from the beginning and I was reading it non-stop from then on. It took me only three days to read this before I was begging my mom to drive me to the store for the second book, Insurgent.

This story takes place in a futuristic Chicago. The city is now worn down from its former glory and its new people are shut out from the rest of the world. They split up their community into five factions: Abnegation who are selfless; Amity who believe in keeping peace; Erudite the intelligent; Candor who are honest to the core; and Dauntless the brave. Everyone is born into a faction. When they turn sixteen they must chose to either stay in their original faction or leave it behind for a new one. Switching factions is a disgrace to your family and former faction. But here everyone believes you should chose “faction before blood”.

Now, the main character, Beatrice, aka Tris, is from Abnegation. She is sixteen and must choose which faction she plans to live in for the rest of her life. The day before the Choosing Ceremony Beatrice must take her aptitude test which will tell her which faction she is most suited for. After the test Tori (Beatrice’s tester) seems extremely worried. She informs Beatrice that she is Divergent. This means she got more than one result on her aptitude test. For some reason this is a big deal and Tori tells Beatrice she can’t tell anyone. She refuses to explain anymore.

The next day, at the Choosing Ceremony, Beatrice chooses her new faction. The next step for the Initiates is to pass initiation into their new faction. Every faction has their own steps every sixteen-year-old has to take to become a member of their faction. If you fail any step you become factionless; which is a terrible position to be in. You are homeless and live on the streets with no hope of ever living in a faction again. From here on you’ll have to read the book to find out what happens to Beatrice and how she does with initiation and such.

This book has plenty of action and a little romance for those who love that type of thing. It’s fast-paced with many mysteries and surprises. This book is amazing! I suggest that everyone should read it at some point. I think teens and adults would enjoy it the most. I really loved it and I might just have to re-read it. I’m definitely looking forward to whenever the third book comes out!