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.
SPOILERS BE AHEAD! Finally! I have read Divergent, the Illinois selection from the United
States of YA via Epic Reads. I read it in the course of three days, pretty
much devouring it. It was as good as
everyone said it would be and is the perfect series for all you Hunger Games fans. A strong female
character, dystopian America, crazy government conspiracy, and a weird theme of
teenagers beating off one another are just some of the themes going on.
I first want to talk about Beatrice.
Oh the relatability. The faction decision is extremely relevant to
teenagers. Where will you go? Who will you become? Where will you fit in? These
questions constantly plague teenagers and in Divergent those questions come quite literally as Beatrice decides
her faction/future. Whatever you choose it is for life and not only that, but
you must leave your family behind and assimilate to the characteristics of that
faction.
After weighing the five options that contain many of these questions, Beatrice
leaves her family of selflessness to join the faction of bravery, Dauntless. To
become an integral part of the faction, Beatrice (now Tris) goes through combat
training and mental simulations to turn her into a badass mindless
soldier. The thing about Tris is that
she is Divergent, meaning she fits in or doesn’t quite fit in with all factions
and can easily manipulate the simulations. Tris’ obstacles are easy to relate to,
especially in the initiation stage, which is pretty much a high school/college setting.
She is discovering who her friends are and falling for boys, as well as finding
herself. In addition, she is going through training and competing with students for top ranks. That is pretty much high school right?
Still, forewarn this is a solid YA book, which means there are some eye
rolls in the cheese department. (SPOILER) The fact that one of Tris’ seven greatest fears is
intimacy or sex with Four made me laugh and eye roll at the same time. It also made me laugh how she decided to get
over her fear, which was to pretty much just have sex with Four. Other little things like that made me realize
that this book was not necessarily targeted to my age demographic. That being said, all libraries with a YA
collection will/should get this series. It has a movie coming out and is part
of the hot genre-of-the-moment dystopia/survival stories.
The only problem is that I have to wait to read Insurgent for a little bit. I have a few more books I need to read
first. Plus, if I read Insurgent now,
I would have to wait til October for Allegiant
and that could be way too long, so I better space this out ;)
Well that is 13 down, 37 more to go!
No comments:
Post a Comment