Well this is going to run a little long. Usually my book reviews do get rather specific because I like to analyze what makes books good or bad. In this case... it's bad. The book is a popular Dystopian I'm sure you've heard of: Divergent.
Now first off, when I make these reviews this is all personal opinion. This is nothing against the author who wrote the piece or the people who do enjoy the book because everything gets a something different out of a novel. For me, I didn't get much, but that shouldn't stop any of you for liking the book.
First we'll start out with the spoiler free section of the review for those who haven't read it.
The book is set in a dystopian society where every child at the age of sixteen must choose which "faction" they will belong to for the rest of their lives. These factions are all centered around a seperate virtue: Dauntless, Erudite, Candor, Abnegation, and Amity. The book follows Tris, a girl from Abnegation who shows aptitude for more than one virtue and is named "Divergent". She defects to the Dauntless near the start of the book.
The writing style: I really have no qualms with this part of the book. In fact if there's one thing Veronica Roth has mastered, it's creating a page turner. Sentences are often and short and sweet and move the book along very quickly. She doesn't linger on anything or analyze anything to much and leaves much of the interpretation to the reader. Only problem is, the more interpretation allowed, the more misinterpretation and I think some things in this book rubbed off on me the wrong way.
The characters: Here's where I first started to struggle in this book. The characters. For the most part I either out right hated them or just found them bland and forgettable. Characters are the most important thing to me in books. I can forgive any sloppy plot if I'm in love with the characters. Unfortunately this book didn't do it for me.
So let's break it down and start with our main heroin: Tris.
I like to analyze characters through their authors as I said. And what do you know? Tris happens to be one of Ms. Roth's two favorite characters. Veronica Roth said that "she liked Tris because of how strong she was but also because she could show vulnerability and acknowledge she needs other people to help her."
Ooh boy, did I not get that out of Tris.
This is actually the only character I felt strong emotion towards and unfortunately it was of the negative type. She just made no sense to me. At her core she seemed like a very selfish, cold, violent person but got the feeling she wasn't supposed to be that way. In the beginning of the book she was fine and seemed a bit out of place in the Dauntless society. Which made sense because she was described as smaller and clumsy. But as she got more and more integrated into society and her peers started to accept and love her more and more, I started to dislike her, which I don't think should have been my response. She just seemed to lose who she was to the point that I had no idea who she was.
Let me explain, the only time where I actually believed the character is when she was in her violent or cold state, which as made obvious by my post on the tough girl stereotype, I don't like unless it is explained or makes sense. She does some violent things and really doesn't feel any guilt for it. Occasionally she questions her actions but this is brushed over very quickly I almost feel like it's a lazy attempt to make Tris seem in the right.
The same thing happens with emotions. Occasionally Tris will "almost cry" or "feel guilty" but these moments seem so sporadic and quick I don't understand her motivation for feeling them. I'm not sure what makes her sad or what makes her angry. I just have to take the books word for it and I don't believe what the book is telling me. She also had an unrealistic progression of athletic ability when she suddenly, despite the fact that she was clumsy a few chapters ago, wins a fight based soely on her quick moves and stellar reflexes... against an opponent twice her size. I call major BS on that.
In my opinion Tris was a very selfish main character and I'll get to what irritates me most about her in the spoilers section.
But that's ok, because side characters can often make up for some of the damage the main character causes. I mean, even in Twilight where I hated Bella with a passion I still liked some of the minor characters like Alice.
Unfortunately so little time is spent with the side characters... I mean they're there but they don't really have a discernible personality throughout their conversations. I can some up their characters in about one word. The best friend was honest, the other friend was logical, the other friend was insecure, the bullies were... stereotypical bullies.
Which speaking of which: One of those bullies is named Peter. Peter was the second of the author's two favorite characters because as she described him "he's the kind of kid who tortured insects on the playground." and he is "morally bankrupt."
Why that sounds facinating! But is he sadistic or interesting? No. He's a typical bully. He's kind of like Draco Malfoy if he didn't get any character development. The character who actually did seem sadistic was Eric, one of the instructors for Dauntless. He was one of the few characters I was interested in. Him and Tris' mom, who discussed in an earlier post. I was honestly much more interested in the mom's story than Tris'.
Our final character is Four. The love interest. And I swear he was the only saving grace about this book... until the end. But I'll get to that in a minute. This was someone who's motivations I understood; someone who was cold because of the environment he was put in and he wasn't at all perfect... ok, he kind of was in the fact that he was the perfect dauntless student but he had attitude issues that made him seem like a normal person.
The one problem I had with him was he seemed older. Maybe it's because he was a teacher and I was picturing someone in their twenties. Maybe it was his calm demeanor (Which isn't typical of 18 year old boys) I don't know but because of that I found Tris' relationship with him a bit... creepy. I know his age but I couldn't get a picture of an adult out of my head.
Unfortunately he faltered as well, but I'll get to that in the spoilers section.
The world: This world, on the surface, seemed pretty cool. I did think the design of the dauntless initiation was well constructed and flawed as it should have been (Since true bravery doesn't seem to be highly valued any more). I thought it was cool it was set in Chicago and it seemed like an original premise.
Only problem is, I can't for the life of me decide what idiot politician thought this world was a good idea for creating a stable environment.
With most Dystopian societies, you see why they were constructed even if you don't agree with them. They are usually made because some great conflict in the past that made it clear that democracy could no longer reign. Therefore they create a stricter political system that will keep peace among the people.
But with this world you are dividing your people up into five factions that clearly don't agree with each other. You decided to keep peace by pointing out people's differences? WHY? To make matters worth some people don't even get a faction. The factionless are impoverished and without a home. Did the government think it was a good idea to isolate people and make them feel like they don't belong? How does that create peace?
And it's not just that they force people to choose a side, but having an aptitude in multiple areas (Divergent) is forbidden. Why? If you have aptitudes in multiple areas why aren't you celebrated. You have the ability to see multiple sides of an argument and could make a great leader among the people and hold them together. Is this government actually saying that you're a bad person if you're well rounded? No wonder s many of the side characters weren't interesting. They had a one dimensional personality based on one virtue!
Story: So one of the underlying conflicts of this story was tension between the factions I was thinking: "Whoopdee doo! What did you think was going to happen?!" Pointing out peoples differences never got them to cooperate!
Apparently the abnegation and erudite are in a tense situation because erudite claims that abnegation is abusing their power and hoarding stuff for themselves... why are they saying that? If abnegation values selflessness then why would they be doing something selfish? It's not like Erudite is saying the Dauntless are deserting the security forces or Amity is being mean or Candor is lying to increase their power. How does their accusation make sense and why does everyone seem to believe it?
And why wasn't this book about the Factionless and an uprising they make. Wouldn't that conflict make a lot more sense. I feel like we could learn a lot more from that story line. And Tris' arc doesn't really add to this whole conflict. It just makes it seem more implausible.
Spoilers: Alright, here's the part where those of you who want to read the book leave. Because I'm talking about the ending.
The problem with this book is that while it's fast paced and well written, you can see the twists coming from a mile away. There were no real surprises in this book. It's like I figured out a twist and was just waiting for it to get there. Then several chapters later it finally got there. The worst offender of this was Four, who's real name obviously isn't Four. As soon as they established that wasn't his real name I was like "Gee, I wonder if it's that one character they briefly mentioned at the beginning who defected to the Dauntless from Abnegation?" Conclusion: Yep.
There were three things in particular that annoyed me about the ending. First, how insensitive Tris was. I swear one of her friends and both of her parents were shot and she gave it so little thought. She felt more emotion to her love interest who she had barely known for a few months and not her MOTHER! That just pissed me off. I just felt like she brushed these deaths off like: Whatever. Sucks. And then just dropped it! It drove it home for me how much I disliked her character.
Second was Four. Because while the other side characters were quite obviously as boring as peaces of cardboard, Four was secretly a piece of cardboard with a veil in front of him that said "I"M MYSTERIOUS! I SWEAR!" The payoff for his character was disappointing.
Third: The message. Or lack there of, because I'm honestly not sure what I was supposed to learn from this. At the end of the day, hundreds are dead, the factions are in ruin, life is terrible but I'm not sure what came out of it? What was the message? That it's important to embrace more than one virtue? I think most people knew that. That similarities are more important than differences? Been done. That war is bad?
...I'm reaching here. I don't know. It really felt like the massive loss of life was all for nothing and sense the main character seemed to care so little about it, so did I.
Sorry this was a long one... consider it making up for the two weeks I'll be gone. Until then!
-Authoress Anonymous
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