Divergent

I read this book yeaaaaaaaaaaars ago and I decided to reread it in 2021. I did really enjoy my reread of Divergent. I have always liked the first book in the Divergent series. It was fun, it was exciting and it can be a bit scary for younger readers. I always recommend this book to my first and second year students, they always love it!

I really like Tris and Tobias in book one. Tris has overcome a lot of stuff in her life and she has to deal with her own anxieties and the troubles of being Divergent.

4.5 stars

Reading this as a 22 year old really hits different lol. Full review to come.

Meh.
A well written page turner with plenty of action I suppose.
I had two main problems with the book.
First, I didn't find the world very convincing. A social organization into five factions as premised I find totally unbelievable. In my observation, most people want to be different in some way. Young adults especially want to rebel. Not a very stable social organization. And, what's happening in the rest of the world? The world was more interconnected even in paleolithic times.
Second, I guess I'm just too old for most YA. I just don't embarrass that easily any more and don't have the same anxieties I did 50 years ago. I don't find superficial portrayals of teen angst very engaging.

The writing style and the world that Roth has created is reminiscent of what readers will find in “Matched” by Ally Condy, with darker undertones and elements of J.K. Rowling's “Harry Potter” series thrown in.

Finally a book that I ended up enjoying even though I watched the movie first. To be fair though I watched it a long time ago and I can't really remember it.

I don't know why it took me so long to read this book but I'm so glad I finally did even if it took me 4 years to do so.

This book was a little slow going at first for me but things eventually started to pick up. I think Roth did an amazing job with world building, her characters, and the plot. I would say this is more of a plot driven book. While the characters are done well I didn't have a connection with any of them. Yeah some of them I hated and some of them I loved but there was no connection for me. I never found myself sympathizing with them even though I probably should have.

While romance isn't the focus of this book you know I have to talk about it anyway. I absolutely loved Tris and Four. I think they are so cute together. These two are my favorite characters from the whole book. Tris a strong female lead and Four a strong male lead both willing to make sacrifices for what's right.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and found it to be addicting but there was something missing that kept me from giving it a 5 star rating I just can't put my finger on what that is exactly.

Way, WAY better than the movies. Really great YA

Well... Surprisingly, I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought. BUT it doesnt mean that I enjoyed it a lot. I was entertained, you may say. I started to read this book with such low expectations, so it worked for me. I wasnt very dissapointed, neither I was surprised by the plot or the characters. It was just a fun read, nothing more than that.
P. S. Yeah, I admit, this book has a lot of plot holes and stupid things in it, but... Oh god, how refreshing it was to read about a romance (sometimes VERY stupid) and not about A FREAKING LOVE TRIANGLE AGAIN.

Actual rate: 4,5 put of 5 stars

I. LOVED. THIS. BOOK.

I already liked the movies, but I never actually read the book. The book is so much better as usual, but I really enjoyed it. It felt real and good and I just loved it
Christina is one of my favorite characters in the movie, but I really disliked her for being so jealous and disrespectful to tris. I do really love four and tris and I totally ship them!

I needed something light after my last read; despite Divergent being dystopian fare, it did the job nicely. It's an action-packed, simple, and fast read, with a predictable story that's nevertheless enjoyable. Grammatical errors very occasionally irritated and pulled me out of the story, but for the most part it's a tightly woven tale. I appreciated the straightforward narrative and economy of words.

Not yet having seen Inside Out, I'm not sure the parallel I'm drawing is even accurate, but Divergent feels like Hunger Games meets Inside Out. In my head, personality traits as factions and emotions as sentient beings sound pretty similar. :D

Anyway. Good story. Not mind-blowing, but fun, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

this reading was great but it wasn't enought to keep me inside the book ‘till i finished it

I guess the best thing I can say about Divergent is that it's not quite as dumb as I thought it would be. In conclusion, not everyone is only Brave, Smart, Kind, Selfless OR Honest, it's just that everyone agrees that only one of those choices is the highest priority, except for Mary Sue Tris (and Her mother, her boyfriend and a bunch of other random people) who wants to be selfless and brave. Also, these are very narrowly defined, so if you want to be Selfless, you have to be so selfless that you don't even look at yourself in a mirror or wear anything other than gray and if you want to be brave you have to engage in physical combat, live in a compound built of precarious ledges, jump on to moving trains and get tattoos. There is no other way to be brave. Also, apparently society fractured this way to prevent violence and murder never exists anymore because...reasons.

So, yes, super dumb premise. I did like the idea of people self-segregating into value-based societies that are more important than vertical relationships, though. It was kind of fun to explore and I wish it had been filled out a little more to discuss in parallel the way that the internet and class distinction is segregating people by political belief in actual real life.

Also, the book was readable and fast-paced, even though kind of nothing happened. But I won't be moving on to the next book (unless I also find that for $2 at the used bookstore): I found none of the characters to be more than caricatures and I don't have a lot of faith that the world building isn't going to sucl.

i always loved the movies, but never really found the time to read the book(s). but i did now and i like the book even better than the movies, it has such a good story behind it and it was written so good.

This is like a high 3.5 stars. 4 just feels like too much.

(As few spoilers as possible contained below)

I honestly don't care for the major ship in the book. I found it vaguely horrifying at times. The dude says it tenderly and admiringly that he forgets Tris is not invincible, as if it's so romantic that he puts her on a pedestal of strength. But I read it and thought, WHAT? He hurts her because he doesn't look closely enough at her to realize that she's capable of pain??? How much can you say you love someone if you aren't even a little concerned about their NEEDS? Tris has weakness and feels pain and I'm not sure it's such a nice thing that he forgets that.

I did laugh in several places.

The suicide made me very sad, even though he had screwed up royally, it still grieved me.

I liked the big issues at stake in the book though, what is the best way to deal with fear, and when is killing another person justified? Most of the time there's no way to determine a right answer, and you just have to choose something and accept the consequences. Tris lost two friends to stay alive. If she had chosen to die her two friends probably would have stopped being friends. She was on a mission and she made her choice.

I'm quite dizzy and shaky because I stayed up way too late reading this and then was so absorbed by the rest of it in the morning that I didn't eat anything. bites banana tentatively

The book doesn't make any sense at all as a cautionary tale (i.e. it's pretty unlikely that anyone will decide to divide society based on personalities), but if you instead read it as an allegory about growing up, things start to make a lot more sense. Tris grows up in a meek and selfless household with loving parents, but the restrictions chafe. She is given the chance to choose a different life with one of the other factions, but to do so would mean publicly rejecting her parents' way of life. Sound familiar to anyone?

It sounded familiar to me, and so I loved it.

http://readingnonstop.blogspot.pt/2015/10/divergent-by-veronica-roth-review.html

I am a bit burned out on Teenager In Dystopia novels, but this was still pretty fun! There were a few points that threw me out of the story where all of the ‘rules' of this society were ignored to move plot points along.

Potential Spoiler
Throughout the beginning of the book it was stressed that Factions come before Blood (family) and there was no mingling. It was also stressed that the Transfers could only see their family once on the visiting day and there are no stories of anyone visiting another Faction- even if becoming Factionless. Yet, Tris just walks into the other faction, visits her brother, and heads home and there are no Faction related consequences- just related to running into the Bad Guys.

Frustrating, but not enough to ruin the enjoyment of the book. I liked the idea of trying to live up to ideals and really liked the character of Tris. Very different than the other novels where the girls start passive and learn to be more assertive.

Planning to read the next in the series soon!

Pretty good.

These young adult books don't really have much that isn't covered in the film. I just read it to see if I should continue the series. Although the majority of the book is quite strong, the ending is daft. There really isn't a middle to speak of.
If you don't have anything else to read, I guess you can give it a try. However, there is too much better stuff out there to bother with this one.
I'll definitely watch the movies though :P

Fast pace, Weak Plot.

Maybe I just had low expectations but this was weirdly good. I couldn't put it down.

My friend bought this book for me last year telling me I'd love it. I tried to read it before the movie came out last year, but after reading The Maze Runner, Hunger Games and Legend I was burnt out on the future world scenario.

Fast forward to December 2014. The movie is now being played on HBO. As one of the only channels we get, I knew I'd end up watching it. I felt bad leaving the book to just sit there watching the abridged version. An hour into the movie, I realize I have somewhere to be. No!! I was really getting into it! It wasn't on when I got home, but I couldn't wait. I picked up the book and began my journey.

The first day I read 100 pages. It was mostly recap of what I had already seen. It was so far really good, even though I couldn't keep the factions straight. I kept going. The action scenes were intense. The ferris wheel, the Hancock, the simulations, the moment with Peter and Al. I'm not sure if it was the author's writing or my familiarity with Chicago, but I felt like I was there. The moments with Four had me hooked. I figured out his story early but I still wanted to know more.

The ending took me by surprise and seemed rushed to me. I'd have liked to see it carry over into the next book. I was also I little disappointed at the lack of characterization with her parents. There was so much potential there. A few extra pages with them would have been nice, but dystopia novels are a lot like Disney. They hate parents.

I also have to say that the last scene between Tris and Four felt like I was back reading Twilight. Yes, I had to say that. It sticks in my head and left a bad taste in my mouth. Aside from that and a little extra character development, I really really liked this. I flew through it and have already started the second book. I hope to catch the rest of the first movie between chapters.

This is definitely one of the better dystopias that I read this year. I quite enjoyed the main character and liked the way that the past was hinted at and somewhat revealed as the story progressed. That said, the entire conceit of the different factions and the way the world is set up... ridiculous. Just don't think about that and everything is good.

Or do. It's all good.

I enjoyed this book up until the end. When I say this, I truly mean it, but unfortunately it ended so abruptly that I kept flipping the pages on my iPad thinking that I had missed something or part of the book ( I am not ashamed to say this has happened before). It certainly made me want to pick up the second book right away but was a little alarming.

This was a slow one to start and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get into it. Then Tris's character began her path of development and I was hooked. At first it seemed childish and wrong, reading about a defenseless girl being beat on to strengthen herself, but then her personality began to shift and she became an entirely different person. Someone strong, brave and willing to sacrifice herself for the greater good. I favor quality character development over plot any day and I was impressed with Tris. The concept of separate factions was interesting, but I think the book took too long to really explain why being divergent was frowned on, this is one of the reasons I labeled it a 4 instead of 5 stars. Another reason was the slow progression in plot until I hit around page 150. I do like my character development, but the plot can't be entirely stagnant. Once Tris entered the Dauntless compound it picked up the pace. The ending conflict was, I think, overly traumatic and could have been handled in a more tactful way, but I am willing to move on to the next book because I really do want to know what happens next.