Divergent - my book review

Divergent by Veronica Roth

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


True rating: 4.5

To start things off, this book reminds me slightly of The Hunger Games series. The beginning and ending of it, anyway. For the likers of this book, you're probably thinking: "Oh, gimme a break!", but the reason why I say that is here. Once you think about it, The Hunger Games starts with the protagonist preparing for something big with her mum. She's dressed up, doing her hair. If you ignore Katniss' hunting scene, that similarity is definitely there. And the war. The big war between rivalling factions, or in The Hunger Games' case, districts. Since Divergent is in a series though, I don't really know about the outcome. I can't wait to see!

Now, to my more light-hearted ramblings. I loved Tris and Four's (Tobias) bittersweet relationship. It wasn't one of those non-realistic ones where the couple run to each other's arms after one week of knowing each other. There was one part, which struck me. I have no idea why, but I admired the fact that they weren't all smoochy-smoochy, touchy-touchy. See it for yourself:

He gives me a conflicted look and touches his lips to my forehead, right between my forehead. I close my eyes. I don't understand this, whatever it is. But I don't want to ruin it, so I say nothing. He doesn't move; he just stays there with his mouth pressed to my skin, and I stand there with my hands on his waist, for a long time.

Okay, well maybe it's not that anti-romantic, but still... this is after around a month of knowing each other (I think). In young adult fiction world, that's not too bad.

I really adored the idea of having factions based on values. Candor: honesty; Amity: kindness; Erudite: knowledge; Dauntless: bravery and last but not least, Abnegation: selflessness. And I've only just realised it, but all of the names of these factions are real words (except for Candor)! Since I sort of favour Amity, throughout the whole book I was waiting for a special mention of it to come up. But none came until Chapter Thirty-Six.

One more thing I must add. I never thought of Divergent as a novel that would make me cry. But it did. If you have read it, you will understand why I was grieving. But geez, I think there's too much loss near the end. It's too much for me to bear.

All in all, Veronica Roth has created a beautiful masterpiece. I am looking forward towards Insurgent.


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