Title: DivergentGenre: Young Adult, Dystopian Fiction
Publication: April 28th 2011, HarperCollins Children's
Pages: 489, Paperback
Source: Thank you so much to Readers Warehouse for providing me with an opportunity to read this phenomenal, brilliant, stunning book!
Price: R80 at Readers Warehouse, a great price!
In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue--Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is--she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.
During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are--and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating 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 a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.
Debut author Veronica Roth bursts onto the literary scene with the first book in the Divergent series--dystopian thrillers filled with electrifying decisions, heartbreaking betrayals, stunning consequences, and unexpected romance.
OH. MY. GOSH. I'm still recovering from reading such a phenomenal book. I can not express to you how much I loved Divergent. It had my heart-racing, my palms sweating and my mouth dry. This is my first dystopian book that I have read and I can just say...I'm hooked on dystopia. It had the satisfying mix of adventure, descriptive characters, world-building and just enough romance. Phew! It was one heck of a ride!
When I first heard of Divergent, I will admit, I wasn't too keen on reading it. People were comparing it to the Hunger Games, and I read about six or seven chapters of HG before not wanting to go further. It just was not my type of read. When I was offered to review Divergent, I was hesitant but I accepted. WOW! That was one of the best book related decisions in my life. *Inhales deeply* Here it goes, here is why it's one of the most AWESOME books EVER.
Like I said, I was hesitant reading Divergent, but when I started it. I was captivated. The plot was moving constantly, at most of the points in Divergent I had to put it down, just so my heart rate would return to normal and my hands would stop sweating. The plot was...magnificent. The pace was quick, but smooth, after I finished a chapter, I was short of breath and it felt like I had just finished a marathon. There were so many twists and turns that when I was faced with one, my jaw literally dropped open, I brought the book closer to my face to just check that my eye sight wasn't deceiving me and then I started hyperventilating, gasping, "I can't believe it, I can't believe it, I can't freaking believe it and just after I'd recovered from the twist, BAM! I was hit with another one, the enforcement as much as a ton of bricks.
The main character, Tris, oh my gosh! I LOVED her, she was brave, loyal and vulnerable at the same time. She was realistic. A normal teenager, yet she was facing a broken world. All the suffering she went through tugged at my heart. Yet she kept on going. She was determined and brave and one of my favourite heroines of all time. In the beginning she was shy and quiet and I loved how, through the book, she changed, physically and emotionally. She was on a journey to save those she whom loved, while in the process discovering herself.
Four. Wow. I loved him. I adored the way he treated Tris. He treated her like the girl she is, brave. Yet he was so gentle and caring with her, I loved how their friendship and romance gradually built up to their relationship. My heart was pounding towards the end when Tris was faced with a tough decision concerning him and I was biting my fingernails so desperately, I don't have much left. He is so brave...dauntless, I guess. I liked how he got the nickname Four, a really interesting concept.
Overall, this was a riveting, heart-pounding novel. I have never read a book like Divergent, which contained such action and suspense so thrilling that I my heart was constantly pounding. Divergent provides a chilling vision of the future, and despite us living in a cruel world with murder and kidnap, I am thankful that it's not like the world in which Tris must survive. An amazing book that you MUST read.
I give it: 5 CUPCAKES!
