Divergent

Divergent
Author: Veronica Roth
Genre: Dystopia, Action, Romance
Pages: 576
Publisher: Katherine Tegan Books

I'll be honest, I was a little excited to read Divergent. I saw it on the Top Ten List on Goodreads, and a friend liked it, so I figured it had to be good.

And it was. But about 10 minutes into reading, about chapter 5, I found myself on a roller coaster. The old, white roller coaster at Lagoon, to be exact.

Just like that old ride, this book took too long to pick up speed, was a replica of everything remotely similar, and ridiculously predictable.

The book is set in a Futuristic-Dystopian Chicago and is told by a 16 year old named Beatrice. She must choose to spend the rest of her life in one of five "factions," tribes that focus on a single trait (Abnegation, Candor, Erudite, Amity, Dauntless). Her unexpected choice sets larger political wheels in motion.

If you took the Hunger Games, gave it 4 instead of 12 districts, made the protagonist blonde and slim, made the Games slightly less gory, and removed the sickening love triangle, you'd have Divergent. Like Suzanne Collins, Veronica Roth tells her story in present tense, which tends to whip the story past textual gaps at a breathtaking pace. For a style that quickly moves the reader into the text, I found myself on page 301 wondering when something was going to happen. Eventually the expected bloodbath gets underway, and the plot hurdles itself into a lofty cliffhanger.

"The [no spoilers] guards close the gate and lock it behind them. The lock is on the outside. I bite my lip. Why would they lock the gate from the outside and not the inside? It almost seems like they don't want to keep something out; they want to keep us in." - Page 128

Too bad this great little piece of premonition never actually gets used in the plot. I could probably handle the ragged textual gaps, since the plot is still engaging, if it wasn't for the romance. OK, I know it's YA lit and it has to have some romantic interest for the fantasizing 13 year olds, but really? Does it have to come in this kind of packaging and volume?

"I know exactly how much space is between us. Six inches. I lean. Less than six inches. I feel warmer, like he's giving off some kind of energy that I am only now close enough to feel. " - Page 240  

" 'Fine.' He leans his face closer to mine, his eyes focusing on my chin, my lips, my nose. 'I watched you because I like you.' He says it plainly, boldly, and his eyes flick up to mine." - Page 337 

While I know that neither of these quotes is necessarily disgusting, it's the frequency that does it to me. Dear Veronica, can we have at least some interaction between characters that's not charged with teenage lust? It wears me out. Sincerely, Kate

Divergent is clearly riding the tidal wave of YA dystopia/brave female protagonist/Byronic hero novels, but it's still entertaining. Like the old roller coaster, it's a bit disappointing, but perhaps there's a reason people still stand in line for it.

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