Divergent is a novel written by Veronica Roth, published in 2011. It takes place in a city separated by 5 different factions, Abnegation, Erudite, Dauntless, Amity, and Candor, all with a different set of defining traits. For example, Abnegation is selfless, Amity is peaceful, and so on. The narrator and main character is a 16-year-old girl named Tris.
Tris struggles with her identity from the very beginning of the book, wondering if the faction she will choose to be a part of for the rest of her life will be Abnegation, which represents selflessness, or Dauntless, which represents bravery. When she takes the aptitude test, a test that determines which faction would best fit someone, her results are inconclusive, and her test instructor informs her she is not Abnegation or Dauntless, but Divergent, meaning she doesn’t fit into just one faction. Tris eventually decides to join Dauntless, and the rest of the novel mainly details her experience in Dauntless initiation, as well as her falling in love with her instructor.
Personally, I thought the novel was basic and predictable, and also very unrealistic. Why are people essentially only allowed to have one personality trait? Also, the aptitude test made no sense to me. Why should randomly picking either a knife or piece of cheese determine the rest of my life? I don’t even like cheese, so I would probably pick the knife, but that doesn’t mean I’m Dauntless, in fact, I’m probably the opposite. However, while the quality of the writing may have been awful, it was at least an interesting and fun read, just not if you’re looking for a book that is objectively good.
To conclude, Divergent is an interesting read if you just want to have fun, but if you enjoy books of good quality then this probably isn’t the novel for you.
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