Divergent

Pros: interesting dystopian world, sympathetic protagonist/

Cons: gaps in the worldbuilding that experienced readers will pick up on but others probably won't care about, ending doesn't hold up to the book's internal logic/

In a city where kids are raised in one of 5 factions (Abnegation, Candor, Amity, Erudite and Dauntless) nothing is more scary than being factionless. Beatrice and her brother are both at the age when youths get to choose their factions. They can either stay in Abnegation, or move to one of the other factions. Whatever they choose, there's no going back. Beatrice wants to be in Dauntless, the faction of the brave, but is she brave enough to turn her back on her family and try something different?

The novel has a unique divisionary structure. After a war the people decided to separate into the group best suited to their personality, which is opposite the trait that group felt caused the war. The warning being that anything taken to extremes is bad.

The dystopian world is fairly well fleshed out, but more discerning readers will find strange gaps in the worldbuilding. For example, the Erudite want more cars and luxury items and Beatrice is surprisingly wasteful when it comes to clothing (throwing out pants because of blood stains). Yet, when Ms. Roth described what jobs each faction performs, no one's said to be in manufacture. Amity grows food, Dauntless police, Abnegation does road repairs and charity word, Erudite are all teachers and researchers and Candor's full of lawyers. It also seems strange that they would need so many lawyers when there appears to be no justice system. When one of Beatrice's fellow initiates seriously injures another, no one steps in to find out what happened.

Beatrice is an interesting protagonist who has to make difficult decisions and learns that the world isn't a very nice place. The author does a great job of letting the reader experience everything Beatrice goes through.

Readers who like romance will enjoy Beatrice and her beau's attempts at coming to terms with who and where they are in life.

I found the ending very problematic, with events not holding up to the book's internal logic.