Recent Reads: The Divergent Trilogy

Yesterday, I finished Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogy.
I started Divergent in August and only stopped in between Insurgent and Allegiant because the latter just came out at the end of October. I like being able to read a series without waiting too long in between books, but it was also nice that no spoilers were out and I could avoid finding out the end because I would be reading it around the same time as everyone else.

I could’ve written about these individually, but I decided to group them together because, well, they are all one story, just separated. I also believe that it’s hard to determine whether or not you like one or all of the books until you’ve actually gone through the whole collection. That’s where you come to your conclusion.

Our heroine is Beatrice Prior, a 16 year old girl who lives in a city divided by “factions”. They are:
Abnegation – the selfless (her home faction)
Erudite – the intelligent
Candor – the honest
Amity – the peacekeepers
Dauntless – the brave
When you turn 16, you are tested to see which faction best suits you. Even if you are raised in one faction, you can stay or switch over to another, depending on your strengths. After the test, you attend the choosing ceremony and turn yourself over to your new home…in the city, the saying is “Faction over blood.”

Beatrice faces a problem when she is tested and the results are considered inconclusive. This is because she does not fit into just one faction, but the majority of factions. This makes her divergent, according to their laws.
This is a problem because the divergent are seen as a threat to the faction system…Beatrice must keep her divergence a secret. When it comes time to choose, she picks the Dauntless. She is enthralled by their thrill-seeking and fearless behavior. When going through the faction initiation, Tris (as she is now called) must learn to fight in hand-to-hand combat and with guns, as well as facing her fears in a series of simulations. Her trainer, Four, learns that she is Divergent through her reaction to the simulations. They grow close through this and eventually fall in love. However, the world they know starts to crumble as the threat to the divergence grows stronger and the city erupts in war.

Through the three books, we learn a lot about how and why the factions started, secrets that have been kept for a long time, and how far people will go for what they consider to be freedom.

It should be said that I finished the last book’s final 100+ pages this morning and there were definitely tears.

Overall, I liked this series. And I think I liked it even more as a whole, knowing the whole story from start to finish.
I also liked the final book, which can be tough in a trilogy like this. As much as I love The Hunger Games, I did feel like Mockingjay didn’t live up to the standards of the previous books. Still loved it, but it wasn’t my favorite of the three.
Speaking of The Hunger Games, I feel that you’ll enjoy these books if you enjoyed those.
In the beginning, I felt like I was reading a Katniss knock off, but it turned into it’s own story very quickly.
It should also be noted that the author is only 25 years old.  
Ultimately, I would recommend these. They were intriguing and exciting and heartbreaking.

If Divergent sounds familiar, but you haven’t seen the books in stores, maybe you’ve seen the trailer for the movie?
It will be out next spring.
Plenty of time to read up before it premieres!