This popular YA novel really held my interest. I didn’t expect to like it, but it hooks the reader fairly early in the novel. It’s the first title in the Divergent trilogy, with the movie is due out next month. It’s a dystopian novel, somewhat in the same vein as Hunger Games, but with differences. When a teen turns 16, a naming ceremony is held and they are free to choose between the five factions of society: Dauntless, which focuses on courage as it main tenent, Erudite (intelligence/learning), Amity (peace), Abnegation (selflessness) and finally, Candor (truth).
Each teen undergoes a mental screening to determine the best fit for him/her. Beatrice, the protagonist, displays an aptitude for 3 factions, which reveals her to be … divergent. She is told not to reveal this to anyone, since it is dangerous to be this, and later in the novel she comes to understand why. Beatrice chooses to leave her faction, Abnegation, since she feels that she is not particularly selfless through to her core, and instead becomes a Dauntless initiate, changing her name to Tris. A series of physical and mental tests are necessary for initiates in any faction, and a certain percentage of the highest scorers will be accepted. If one is rejected by a faction, he becomes factionless, which is on an even level with homelessness. Tris passes the tests with the highest scores, and becomes a member.
The novel contains the requisite love story, as Tris falls for one of her Dauntless instructors, Four. The novel ends with Erudite faction, greedy for power, programming Dauntless members to fight the leaders of the government, who are all Abnegation, and a bloodbath ensues. (Dauntless are the only faction that have weapons). The reader then is left hanging, and must search out the next title in the series, Insurgent, in order to see what develops next.
Recommended for ages 14 & up.