Divergent is the story of Tris, born into Abnegation she has to make a decision to either stay or to join another faction at the age of 16. This is normal and happens to everyone. Under testing it turns out she’s Divergent with talents and skills most people don’t have and the authorities don’t want to foster, this is hidden by her tester and she chooses Dauntless. In this book we see her training by Dauntless, her initiation and the beginning of the revolution.

Things I like

The writing is good. It’s well written with good concepts and is well thought through. The idea that people get to choose who they will spend the rest of their life with is brilliant, it means they get to escape from any abusive parents or get away from a ‘religion’ that doesn’t suit them.

Each faction has different qualities and different responsibilities. Abnegation is self-less, always thinking of others and run the government. If you are more into research then when testing happens at the age of 16 you’re able to change to Erudite, if you’re brave you get to change to Dauntless. The problem here is that many families consider this change to be betrayal and don’t want to talk to you ever again despite visiting times being made available.

The world building seems pretty good. Each faction seems to be one aspect of society and I like how you actually get to choose your faction. It’s interesting how each faction is dressed in a certain way so that if you happen to meet someone from outside your faction you know instantly where they’re from. Schooling is done in a general location so you get to meet and potentially friend people from different factions.

Things I don’t like

Tris is 16, she chooses Dauntless and her trainers are only two years older than she. It means when she falls in love with Four, her main trainer, then it doesn’t feel wrong as two years is not a big gap. What gets me about it is that I can’t quite understand how a trainer has the skills and abilities to do this at only 18. The other trainer, Eric, is also only 18 and he’s supposedly in charge of the Dauntless. I understand there’s a lot of people who die off during training and then more further on as Dauntless life is rather brutal but I just can’t figure out how someone who is only out of training for two years could be the leader. Maybe some of this will come clear in the next two books.

The romance. I really don’t understand why someone has to fall in love in so many books. I’m sure someone will try to explain it to me and I know I won’t understand. I won’t tell you who as that could possibly be spoilers and I wouldn’t dare do spoilers here despite having mentioned it above. Will this romance stop me reading the rest of the trilogy? Don’t know as this is well written otherwise.

This link is to the set of four books (should you buy through this link I get a small percentage), despite the romance it’s good writing and I do recommend it. There is lots of violence and death, callousness is the word that springs to mind here.