In May of 2011, I recommended Divergent to those enjoying The Hunger Games. After reading Roth's second book in this series, Insurgent, I am not convinced that it is as good as HG, but it is still a decent TeenLit selection that will keep me looking for future releases.
To learn more about the premise of the Divergent series, check out my review of the first book. As with any series in general, but with TeenLit in particular, it's pretty important that you read these things in order. In fact, if you haven't read Divergent and plan to check it out, I'd suggest that you stop reading here so as not to encounter any spoilers.
If you're still reading, that means you've already read the first book, don't plan to read either, or simply are one of those (weird) people who reads the last page of a book first. Either way, I'm letting you know that Tris joined the Dauntless faction--something I withheld in my review of Divergent. As a member of this group, she fought a battle with Erudite, the faction that led a war on the other factions by controlling the minds of people in the remaining four groups and forcing them to engage in violence against each other. Some of the Dauntless actually joined the Erudite in this endeavor, and in the second book they are referred to as the Dauntless traitors. By the time the second book opens, there is a calm in the fighting, as Tris and other Divergent Dauntless (including the beloved Four/Tobias) were not affected by the simulation and managed to interrupt the mind-control activity.
In Insurgent, Tris and her fellow Dauntless leave their headquarters and spend time with both the Candor and Abnegation--in addition to making contact with the factionless outsiders of society. Ultimately Tris must decide whether she will remain faithful to her chosen faction or seek the truth regardless of the consequences. You may have a decent guess, but you'll have to read the book to find out whether or not you are right.
(PS: As with my reflection on the Delirium/Pandemonium series in my previous posting, I am also pondering what the third title in this series may be: Divergent, Insurgent, Convergent?)
If you enjoyed Collins's Hunger Games teen series, you'll enjoy Roth's Divergent as well. I haven't decided yet whether it's quite as good--I'll wait until the second book in the trilogy is released to make that decision--but I can tell you that I read through the fast-paced post-apocalyptic story over the course of two busy days, fitting some reading time whenever I could and staying up late to finish.
The protagonist of Divergent is a 16-year-old girl, coming of age in a society that has rebuilt itself after a devastating war by having people commit to one of five factions which live their lives based on characteristics opposite of those they believe led to war in the first place. At 16, children must pick one of these factions, in which they will live out their lives: Candor, Abnegation, Dauntless, Erudite, and Amity. While raised by their parents within one of these factions, each new adult has the opportunity to join whichever group he/she desires, guided by the results of a virtual-action personality test. While Beatrice has been raised in Abnegation, leading a life of political and humanitarian service (selfless people will do the best for others, it's believed), she has always struggled to conform to Abnegation expectations. When she takes her test, she discovers why: she is one of a small percentage of people who identify with more than one faction in testing--in her case Candor, Abnegation, and Dauntless--making her one of the Divergent. She is told she must keep this a secret, as Divergence is dangerous.
I don't want to add a spoiler here, so I won't tell you which of the three factions Beatrice chooses. However, suffice it to say that dividing people into five personality/behavior types started out as a good social experiment, but the system has degenerated over time. Mistrust and corruption have led to divisiveness, and faction charters and constitutions have been distorted. As divergent, Beatrice--or Tris, as she becomes known--is exactly the type of person that may be able to do something about this. And, in TeenLit fashion, she wont have to do it alone, as long as the dark, sexy Four is at her side.
All in all, it's a promising first novel by Roth, and I'm looking forward to the second in the series. And, if you loved Hunger Games as much as I did, it's at least a good read to kill some time before Collins releases some new work.
