Divergent
Veronica Roth
In Tris’ society, you belong to one of five factions, depending on the broad personality traits that you display – honesty, peacefulness, selflessness, bravery and intellectuality. Everyone must choose in their 16th year, after undergoing an aptitude test that suggests their best fitting faction. Tris, however, shows affinity for more than one faction, making her a dangerous divergent.
I found the training of the Dauntless fascinating, and it was the highlight of the novel to me. I felt like Tris should be succeeding and exceeding at different things that she fails at, she’s so plucky and determined. But at the same time, there are other things she succeeds with, particularly her fears. It’s easier for her, because she’s divergent, but at the same time, she shows insight into why each of the things affects her.
It’s starting to drive me nuts, all the comparisons to ‘The Hunger Games’. They aren’t everything that this genre has to offer! This novel, when reviewed in it’s own right, is worth reading. People say ‘Divergent’ is not as good as ‘The Hunger Games’, but it doesn’t need to be, it’s allowed to be different.
It all seems a little convenient that Tris just happens to be a divergent and that it so happens that this plan is going to happen just then. It seems like a plan that would take years to set up, and yet Tris is the one who must stop it. Ah well, what’s a novel without convenience?
I’m looking forward to reading the other novels in the series, but even if I don’t get around to them, I won’t feel too sad. This novel seems like it will be the one I will enjoy the most anyway. I’m feeling a bit browned off series, I want a good solid read in its own right.
I bought this book as a vacation novel – free choice! Well worth the $13 I spent on it at Kmart, a light read that didn’t actually ask me to think too deeply (although it subtly prompts different ideas).
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Sometimes I found it hard to believe that Jamilah is 16. She doesn’t seem to have enough responsibility, or enough personality to be that old. That’s even with her father being ultra protective of her. The contrasts between the way siblings are treated holds true across most families. There’s always a favourite – or a ‘perfect child’. And Jamilah is forced into that role of being perfect, but she finds it increasingly hard to keep that.
I wasn’t expecting anything when I picked up ‘Paper Planes’. To my surprise, it was the narrative of a young boy, threatened by war in Bosnia. Again, I’m not good with history, but this the real thing. In the back of the novel, you will find a note from Jarko.
They meet various people along the way, and each one seems like they have a story, a background, something important to add. Even as at the same time you want to fit them into stereotypes, you just can’t. We don’t see much character development in my opinion for the 3 girls. Bev seems just as mean, and although we hear about the major events in their lives, and how they affected their person in the past, we don’t see that development in the future/present.