“One choice decides your friends, defines, your beliefs and determines your loyalties…forever.

When sixteen-year-old Tris makes her choice, she cannot forsee how drastically her life will change. Or that the perfect society in which she lives is about to unfold into a dystopian world of electrifying decisions, stunning consequences, heartbreaking betrayals and unexpected romance.”

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You know what feels awesome? After receiving a book and skimming over other’s many positive reviews on it, glaring at them suspiciously and thinking “you guys better be right”, finding that they totally were. Which was the case with Veronica Roth’s debut, Divergent.

You know what else is awesome? A really, fat book. When it comes to books, for me the fatter the better. I’m the kind of person who’d dance in a book store singing “I like big books and I cannot lie….” to the tune of Sir Mix A Lot’s “I Like Big Butts”, because when a book is good, you want it to last. This is also the case with Divergent.

If those two facts weren’t reason enough for you to be lacing up your shoes and heading out to buy a copy I’ll explain a little more why I liked it so much….

The world Tris has grown up in the past sixteen years has been designed for one reason – to create a peaceful society. This society has been split into five different factions and at sixteen years old everyone makes a choice – stay in your faction, or switch. Tris struggles with the decision – does she stay in with her family in the same faction where she doesn’t quite fit in or do the unthinkable, become a transfer.

So often I heard Divergent being compared to books such as The Hunger Games, which for those who have read it would know that’s a big statement to make. I would agree with them though and say that even though it had certain similar elements – a strong lead, a dystopian society, plenty of action and amazing writing, I in no way felt that it was a rip off or too similar to The Hunger Games, it felt totally original. At times it also reminded me of Vampire Academy, but again, it was not a copy.

Veronica Roth does an amazing job of building up the world and setting in Divergent but also has such incredible and dynamic characters, where even the villains were fascinating to read about. There’s really not much I can fault this book on, it was heart stopping, compelling and thrilling, I was completely absorbed.

I guess if I were to nitpick the only problem I had was that each candidate seemed to learn to fight with great skill very quickly, when we only saw not much technique being taught to them before putting those skills into practice. But again, I’m nitpicking. The rest? Totally awesome, especially the last few pages.

For those wondering, yes, there’s a romance in there too. It’s not the main point of the book, but there’s enough of it to make us softies happy. I’m also happy to report that Divergent is a love triangle free zone.

After turning over the last page and knowing it was over I was filled with that familiar sense of dread when I thought about how long I would have to wait to find out what happens next. Too long.

Divergent has the perfect mix of a kick ass story, an awesome lead, a flawed society, adventure, lurrrve and plain freaking awesomeness.

Pages: 487
Publication Date: May 2011
Publisher: Harper Collins
Challenge: Debut Author
Rating: : ★★★★½

Teaser Quote: “Four flips the gun in this hand, presses the barrel to Peter’s forehead, and clicks a bullet into place. Peter freezes with his lips parted, the yawn dead in his mouth. “Wake. Up,” Four snaps. “You are holding a loaded gun, you Idiot. Act like it.”



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