In a dystopian world where humans are separated into five different factions based on their personalities, one girl strives to find where she belongs. The five different sectors are Erudite (the intelligent), Amity (the peaceful), Candor (the honest), Dauntless (the brave) and Abnegation (the selfless).
Beatrice is fifteen and has the choice of staying in Abnegation and being selfless for the rest of her life, or leaving her birth faction and striking out to join a new one. To join a new faction you must undergo initiation for that faction; failure to complete the entry process results in being factionless: homeless, without pride and with no reason to live.
When Beatrice joins Dauntless, who have the hardest initiation process of all the factions, will she be able to cope and enter the group who have sworn to protect all of the factions? Will she ever see her brother, Caleb, or her parents, who are furious she has left Abnegation? And who is this mysterious man who's known only by the name 'Four'?
I loved Divergent because the idea of being separated by your personality is something which fascinates me. Tris is such a determined person: she refuses to be seen as weak or less worthy than her chosen faction because of her birth (as Abnegation are seen a weaker personality type). This is something I was able to connect with.
Dauntless itself fascinated me because, out of all of the different factions, they were the most interesting as they protected the borders of the city. But from what? What would happen if they got into fights? How did they train to protect the city? Being seen as strong is something which I've always wanted so Dauntless was a strong personal attraction.
I also felt for Tris when her family basically abandoned her after she left for Dauntless. Her brother Caleb leaves Abnegation to join Erudite so the chances of Tris seeing him again rapidly decrease, while her father (born and remained in Abnegation, even when he had an opportunity to leave) is furious that Tris would leave and doesn't visit her. This leaves Tris' mother as her only supporter. I enjoyed seeing how Roth played out her relationship with her family.
Four was also, as expected from the male love interest, extremely enticing. However I think the thing I found most interesting about Four was his actual nickname. Why is he only known as Four?
And finding out the answer to this only made me read faster.
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