Divergent

   Divergent was a book that locked me into the pages and made me take an exciting and unpredictable trip trough a strange and dangerous world. I’m going to start by saying that you really wanna read this book. Like really! I started it with an open mind but also thinking that this could be just another book following the same pattern that has been copied hundreds of times in YA novels. And it wasn’t! It was like an insane ride, full of stupefaction moments.

And if you are afraid that it’s going to be like the Hunger Games, I can tell you that the only thing that they have in common is: that it takes place on the future and the story is told in the first person (Beatrice). That is pretty much it!

“In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she’s kept hidden from everyone because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.” Amazon.com description of Divergent

If you haven’t read the book… GO! And then come back… because this is a book that you don’t want to miss. (specially if you love YA) *Spoilers alert*

So the he book starts with Beatrice, our heroine, a fun but restrained girl having to choose between staying in her section or change to another one. I think that is interesting seeing the conflict that starts to grow inside of her and that when she goes to take the aptitude test, hoping that this will help her to choose, she just gets 3 different and odd results, later known as Divergence (so I really like that she wasn’t able to take the easy way and had to choose between her own happiness and the loyalty to her family)

Once she decides she wants to be a Dauntless she goes trough an amount of physical and mental tests all very dangerous (where people actually die!!!) and meets the persons that will eventually become her friends. I did though at first that Peter would be a possible “candidate” for a love interest with Tricia and would create a love triangle with Four (that one never fooled me 😉 ). But to my surprise he grew in to be a character that I hated with all my heart. He was cruel (just like Eric) and since they were in a place where being the best fighter and knocking out others has almost the same status as getting a good grade in math in the real world, he really became dangerous and heartless. Also throughout the story he was more like a silent cobra that attacked in the darkness of the night, instead on the heat of the fight, so I really didn’t know what he was planning in those moments.

While Tricia develops her skills and gets positive remarks about her work, others like the group of Peter get jealous and even attack her one night. I wasn’t expecting the brutality of it and it really took me by surprise that one of the aggressors was her friend and peaceful guy Al. I would have seen it  more if it had come from Cristina. It’s not that I don’t like her, it’s just that I don’t trust her. She seems to be one of those people who are always fine when you are the one that is weak, and once Tricia got up in the ranking, she just got jealous and weird. But going back to Al, I still was sad when he committed suicide, I suppose that in the end the guilt and the lost of Tricia’s friendship just was too much for him to handle.

Now to happy, romance stuff, Four is really awesome and they do have a lot of sweet moments together. He has grown from being a mentor/friend to be a mentor/boyfriend. I remember reading the part where Tricia’s father talks about Marcus and the son that transferred from Abnegation and I knew it was going to be important, because why else she (Veronica Roth) would put that in? So I kinda already knew that he was Tobias, like I suspected that her mother had been a Dauntless, all because she seemed to much at ease in the compound.

I really loved when they were in his fear landscape and in the end she was like “This is why they call you Four.” That I would have never guessed. Also I was so embarrassed for her when she was in hers, because it was private fears, like we all have and specially one like that and there were people watching :S

Now the end part, with all of the fights and she being shot, was really exciting to read. When Tobias was injected I really hoped that the book wouldn’t end with him like that, because that would have meant that she would spend the whole second book trying to find a way to save him and that would have been just boring. Plus I liked how she was putting to the test all that she had learned and still when her parents died it was so bittersweet and heartbreaking, even more because they were protecting her and finally she knew that they had accepted her choice.

I really don’t know how is going to be the conversation between her and Cristina, once she tells her that Will is dead, because of her. He was such a nice guy, I’ll miss him. I thank that she has her brother, that has her back and Tobias and I don’t know what the hell she had on her mind to bring Peter along, I would have left him to rot in the battlefield. He is just going to bring trouble, mark my words. 😉

P.S. Almost forgot how amazing and smart she was in the strategic challenge, I really knew that she could kick the other team’s butt. Take that Eric!

*End of spoilers*

So basically the conclusion is that if you want a new and good YA book to read, go to your nearest store and buy this one! Seriously I loved this book! But let me just warn you, that even though it has amazing fun parts, it also has scenes that are not for the soft-hearted.

Read, read and read! 🙂

Lots of love,

Paradise of Words