Steve Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

Jul 19, 2011 by shanyn

Title: Divergent
Series: Divergent #1
Hardcover, 487 pages
Author: Veronica Roth
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Publication Date: May 3, 2011
Source: Publisher
Buy: Amazon

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Book Summary:
In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago, 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 to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating 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 a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

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Steve Review:
The time has come.  Shanyn and Steve have both read the same book and both are posting reviews of it.  OMG!!! haha, check out Shanyn’s review of Divergent here!

Shanyn got Divergent a while back and after she finished it, highly recommended it to me (read: told me I didn’t have a choice, I had to read this book).  After hemming and hawing a bit (lol I’m not sure if I actually did this or even how to do that, I just wanted to type it) I agreed to.  You saw how highly she thought of it, let’s get to the part where I tell you my thoughts on it!

She was spot on, this book is great!  And I’ll be honest, I wasn’t super gung-ho about it after reading the back cover or summary.  Despite that initial impression going in, the book slowly won me over.  It is creative, unique, and well developed (that’s what she said).  I liked the characters, the plot development, and concept of what I think will be the opening chapter to an outstanding series.  A fairly quick read but not too fast, and while definitely a teen book there are some very adult relatable content and shocking surprises inside.

If BOTH Shanyn and Steve have read it, and they BOTH reviewed it, alarms should be going off and you should put this book at the top of your to be read pile It hit the 50/50 mark on Shanyn’s scale, let’s see what it gets on my (typically harsher and more realistic) points scale shall we:

Points Scale:

Cover: 4/5 – I like it.  Symbols are fun and it draws me in.
Title: 5/5 – Hit the mark here, good title is good. heh.
Plot: 10/10 – Really well done.  Great background, terrific buildup, and well executed climax.
Characters: 8/10 – Very good characters, I liked “Four” quite a bit and would have loved to get a bit more detail on some of the other characters instead of a lot of the introspection done by the main character.  Nitpickiness though.
Writing: 9/10 – See plot and then characters and then take the average.
Ending: 8/10 – Fast paced ending that leaves you ready for more but not in an overly cliffhanger dissatisfying way.

Total: 44/50 – Really an amazing score on my scale.  I’d say a must read for anyone who enjoys anything dystopian, a very pleasant surprise and hopefully the beginning to a wonderful young adult series.

Buy: Amazon

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