Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Book Review: the Divergent series

How's it going, everyone?  Today was my first day of work this year, and let me tell you, that alarm was a RUDE awakening this morning!  I was, surprisingly, wide awake after getting out of bed, and work went well.  I hope your day went well, too.

Today, I have a book review for you!
I finished reading all three books of the Divergent series, a popular young adult dystopia series by Veronica Roth.  A friend of my suggested this series to me since I loved The Hunger Games series.  I must say, she was right!
The first book begins with Beatrice Prior on Choosing Day.  The city of Chicago has changed into its own society, where each citizen belongs to one of the five factions.  At sixteen years old, citizens take an Aptitude Test to determine into which faction they best fit.  They then choose which faction they will belong to for the rest of their lives on Choosing Day.

I don't want to give too much away, but the rest of the book follows Beatrice as she goes through the initiation process of her faction.  It's a very intense, action-packed process that follows her as she forms friendship, struggles to find her place, and even experiences a little romance.

There is a huge twist at the end of the book, which I did NOT see coming.  This book kept me turning the pages, and I finished it fairly quickly.
The second book, Insurgent, picks right up where the first book leaves off.  I can't really talk about the plot without giving things away, but this is also a fast-moving book with lots of surprises along the way.  It was a great read!
The last book of the series, Allegiant, continues the story in a different fashion than the first two books. The third book is told from two different perspectives, which was a little tough to get used to.  The book picks up in the middle, but I was quite surprised and disappointed with the ending.  In my opinion, this was my least favorite book of the series.

Overall, this is a FANTASTIC book series.  I found the characters very relatable, especially the main character Beatrice.  There were many twists and turns (some expected, some completely shocking) that made the story a real page-turner.  I was also really impressed with the intricate society that Veronica Roth created.  That's one of my favorite things about dystopian fiction, and I think Roth did a great job describing her made-up society.  It was really cool!

Even though I was disappointed with the ending, I still enjoyed the story and was happy that there was closure to the books.  I highly recommend these books if you liked The Hunger Games, or if you enjoy the dystopian fiction genre!
...or if you're a kitty cat, apparently!!

Divergent is coming out as a movie in March, and I'm really excited to see it!  The casting looks great, and many of the scenes looked similar to how I pictured things.

Question for you: Have you read the Divergent series?  If so, what did you think?  If not, what's the best book you've read lately?

2 comments:

  1. I didn't love Divergent as much as I expected to. My students all raved about it, and while I enjoyed Divergent, I didn't think it was anywhere near as good as The Hunger Games. The best book I've read recently was Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult.

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    1. I thought the first book was great, but you're right, as a whole I think Hunger Games was better.

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