The Divergent series has captivated readers since it’s release in 2011. The books are similar to the other post-apocalyptic books on the shelves right now, such as (The Hunger Games, Legend, Matched, etc.) The newest book in the series just came out and fans are raving about the exhilarating new addition. With the movie adaptation coming out in March, the book is the cherry on top of the cake for Divergent fans. I was impressed and shocked by the book. With many twists and turns, I found myself gasping, crying, and laughing all in the same chapter. It was a wonderful conclusion to the series.
The first book first, Divergent, captured my interest because the cover reminded me of another book I had read. The book is a futuristic world, set in Chicago, about a girl named Beatrice, who is about to turn sixteen. In Divergent, when teens turn sixteen they are forced to choose one of five factions to be in for their entire life. They have the chose of being a Dauntless (the brave), Erudite (the intelligent), Abnegation (the selfless), the Candor (the honest), or the Amity (the peaceful.) When one enters into a faction that means accustoming to their entire life style even to the point of adopting their idle habits. Beatrice has grown up an Abnegation her entire life. She is required to be selfless almost to the point of stupidity. However, this genuine selflessness had never settled with Beatrice. After always feeling out-of-place, inadequate, and getting inconclusive results on a test that is supposed to make the choice easier, Beatrice chooses to join the faction she admires the most: Dauntless.
The choosing ceremony reminded me of some of the life decisions I have to make my self. If only it were as easy as choosing between five choices to decide the rest of your life. After betraying her faction Beatrice begins her initiation into the Dauntless, where she becomes Tris. She quickly makes friends and is introduced to one of my favorite characters, Christina. She is a Candor who transferred to Dauntless. She has a smart mouth and constantly puts Tris in her place.
Throughout the book, Tris develops a relationship with her instructor Four, who she discovers to be the infamous first person to ever leave Abnegation. During her initiation, they must keep their growing relationship a secret. Divergent, just like the rest of the books in the series is filled with action and romance. Tris’s initiation consists mostly of her fighting the other initiates to train for guarding the fence. Tris is highly underestimated because of her small stature but slowly begins to show them what she is truly made of. She discovers that her being Divergent means more than she thought it did.
The second book is my personal favorite of the series. Insurgent tells about what happens after a huge war that the city has in the first book. Tris and Tobias are trying to find peace and somewhere to stay in the Amity compound, along with Tris’s brother, Tobias’s father, and a fellow initiate with major anger issues. There they are greeted by the faction leader, Johanna, who tells them that the faction has decided to let them stay as long as they don’t fight or use weapons.
Coming from the Dauntless compound this doesn’t exactly sit well with Tris. After being discovered at the Amity compound, they have to run back to the city once again looking for a place to hide. When they discover the factionless, the people who failed or quit their initiation, Tobias discovers his long-lost mother and they are forced to choose side in the war. My favorite part of this book happens when they return to the city. Tris offers herself up as a sacrifice of the people she is hiding. The opposing side of the war, the Erudite, does not kill anymore of them. However, she does not tell Tobias, now her boyfriend, that she is going to attempt this. After lying to him about staying and going to the compound with Christiana and Tobias’s father, Tris goes prepared to give up her life.
This is my favorite part because she is willing to give up everything, even her life to save the people she cares about while still claiming that she is not selfless enough. The rest of the book is filled with more action and adventure and did not fail to disappoint me.
The third book continues with Tris, as the main character, who is trying to break up a fight between the factionless and former faction members and a trial for her brother Caleb. After the video from Edith Prior is released, the “Allegiant,” a rebellious group who is against the city’s current leader Evelyn Eaton, Tobias’s mother, sends a group outside the city. The area outside the city is barren and desolate. No one other than the Dauntless, the guards of the city, has ever been outside the limits. Tris has mixed feelings toward her brother on the way because of his previous betrayal to her in the first book. When they arrive to the Bureau of Genetic Welfare located outside of the city, they discover that Tris’s genetic make up is supposed to be ‘superior’ to Tobias’s.
This angers Tris very much, because Tobias begins to believe his gene’s are “damaged.” I found this interesting because it clearly displayed the dynamics of their relationship. Tris is small, and is often underestimated despite her athletic and mental abilities. Tobias recognized Tris’s strength from the beginning noting how, “fear doesn’t shut you down, it wakes you up.” Tobias, while not often underestimated deals with self-esteem issues due to his mistreatment from his father as a child. Tris constantly has to remind Tobias of his worth, just as he has to remind her of his confidence in her strength. Through out the novel, Tobias and Tris’s relationship grows stronger as they learn to accept and forgive each other. The action in the book was also fast paced and intense. Tobias is persuaded to join a rebellious group of “damaged” and they stage an attack against the Bureau in which one of Tris’s Divergent friends Uriah is severely injured. This part upset me greatly because Uriah is one of my favorite characters. Tobias feels great regret for what happened to Uriah and Tris can’t even look at him the same.
The real climax of the novel in my opinion however, was when Tobias, Christina, Peter, and Amar headed back to the city to let Tobias tell Zaine’s parents what happened to Uriah, his brother. While in the city, Tobias has to choose one of his parents, both leaders of the city, to erase their memory. This part was particularly interesting because he had to decipher between what he thought the city needed, and who he disliked the most. He had to choose between an abusive father or an abandoning mother.
While I enjoyed the book very much, I was not satisfied with the ending. Of course, I won’t tell what happens, but I will say that it’s definitely a tear jerker. Other than that, I was pretty pleased with the book. It is not a pretty story, but definitely will grasp at the hearts of anyone who happens to pick it up. If nothing else, it will shock people. I definitely recommend the Divergent series to anyone who happens to pick it up or pass by it in a book store.
