"Divergent" by Veronica Roth

Title: Divergent

Author: Veronica Roth
Publisher: Harper Collins

Book 1 of 'Divergent'

Blurb:

For sixteen-year-old Tris, the world changes in a heartbeat when she is forced to make a terrible choice. Turning her back on her family, Tris ventures out, alone, determined to find out where she truly belongs.

Shocked by the brutality of her new life, Tris can trust no one. And yet she is drawn to a boy who seems to both threaten and protect her. The hardest choices may yet lie ahead….

Synopsis:

In a post-apocalyptic Chicago, survivors divide into five factions based on their dispositions: Abnegation, for the selfless; Amity, for the peaceful; Candor, for the honest; Dauntless, for the brave; and Erudite, for the intelligent. Each year, all sixteen-year-olds must take an aptitude test that describes the one faction for which they are best suited. After receiving the results, they can decide whether to remain with their family's faction or transfer to a new faction. Those who do not complete initiation into their new faction become "Factionless", and are forced to live in poverty on the streets of the city.

Tris Prior and her brother Caleb are approaching their Choosing Day. The day they either choose to stay with the faction they have grown up in, or pick a new one. They are tested prior to choosing and Tris' tests are inconclusive to which faction she should choose, hence she is Divergent. She is warned never to reveal this to anyone.

On the day of Choosing, she picks Dauntless and enters their initiation program. During initiation she makes friends and enemies within her new faction. And she also finds love in the initiation trainer namer 'Four'.

For a full synopsis go visit Wikipedia.

Verdict:

When I first got told of this book/movie, a friend described it as "The Hunger Games" only without the Hunger or the Games. Lol. Although the comparison of post-apocalyptic world with teenage female main character is true, that is where the comparison ends. This was a good read, OK so the plot is predictable once it gets going, but hey what book isn't.

Rating: 4/5