Book Review: Divergent

Summary: The book Divergent by Veronica Roth is about this girl Beatrice (Tris) who has to make a very big choice from the start. She has to pick her faction. There are 5 different factions she can choose from but is torn between two, One her family is expecting and wants her to stay there, the other she looks up to and admires. For her the choice was easier than expected and begins her new life. But when tensions among, not only her own faction but also between the factions themselves, rise, Tris has to work and fight harder than she ever has before to survive.

Who would enjoy this book? I think anyone who is interested in futuristic/fiction books would enjoy this. This book, I thought was a lot like The Hunger Games in genres and anyone who read and liked that book would also like Divergent. This book is action filled but also has romance, and I think this book can appeal to a lot of people.

Rating: I would give this book 5 out of 5 because it is one of the best books i have read. I like how relatable a lot of the characters are even though they aren't real. Also throughout the book you are always on your toes (sometimes literally) just waiting to find out what happens next. 

Writing Style: the writing style of this book is mostly lower diction so it is an easy read but also has a lot of descriptive words and figurative language that gives you, the reader, a clear picture in your mind about what’s going on.

How did the Author Build Suspense in the Book?

The author built suspense in the book in different ways. The most common way that i noticed way by dragging on explanations and building the image in your head using descriptions. Another way i noticed would be to give hints but leave out crucial information for the reader to realize whats really going on like in chapter 32 she says "I don't even know how I'll explain it later. I don't even know how to think straight. But i do know how Erudite will get us to fight"(Roth, 415). Then the chaper ends. This makes you want to keep reading so you too can know how they will get them to fight.

Describe How the Different Characters deal with the Main Conflict of the Novel

The main conflict of the novel at this point is just being able to get through initiation. This for a lot of the characters is very difficult (some more than others). Some people feel so threatened that they will got to extreme lenghts to make sure they can get in to the faction. Like when someone stabbed Edward in his sleep so they could get above him in rankings. This caused another person to drop out just out of sheer fear that they would be stabbed next. For the other person, Myra, to drop out it shows that she was a coward and wouldnt really fit in to Duantless anyway. However it also shows that she is strong for being able to stand up and say she is leaving because the faction wont even do anything about her friend being stabbed. When Tris and Christina are talking they say "'Should we tell someone?' 'You really think the Dauntless will do anything?' I say. 'After they hung you in the chasm? after they made us beat eachother unconscious?'" This just shows how little the Dauntless leaders care. For the other initiates to stay it shows that they truly want this and that they are willing to put their lifes on the line for something they want, eccpecially when the leaders are willing to let them kill eachother for this.

Final Blogging Assesment in English 1B

My book, Divergent, is also a movie and I noticed a lot of key differences between them. One of these differences happens when Tris finds out her mother used to be Dauntless. In the movie Tris is working with some of the other initiates in her faction when her mom takes her and talks to her. After that it takes her a long time, almost to the end of the movie, to figure it out completely. Whereas in the book, they have visiting day (which they completely left out in the movie) where the kids who switched factions are able to see their parents. Tris sees the way her mom looks around, almost nostalgic to the place, and the thing that really told her that her mom switched was "She walked away, and I am too stunned to follow her. At the end of the hallway she turns and says, ‘Have a piece of cake for me, all right? The chocolate. It’s delicious'"(Roth, 188). This may seem like a normal sentence but this means something to Tris because in the moment after that she thinks "She has remembered the compound before. She remembered this hallway. she knows about the initiation process. My mother was Dauntless" (Roth, 188). This is just one of the key differences between the book and the movie.

Another Difference I noticed was in the movie they cut out a lot of things like when Tris and the other initiates are taken on a trip to the wall, which in the future they may have to guard. This part is important to the book because Tris notices one important thing, the lock is on the outside of the wall not the inside. A small detail that may be important to remember for later.





The movie trailer can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sutgWjz10sM