Let me start off by saying
that the Divergent book series is a
book series that I’ve really wanted to read and was really excited about for quite
a while. I went into reading Divergent
full of excitement and anticipation. Unfortunately, I ended up being very
disappointed by this book.
One of the biggest problems
that this book suffers from is a serious lack of world building. As I was
reading this book, I kept waiting and hoping for Roth to provide some backstory
for what happened that prompted their society to develop the social structure
that they have with the five different factions: Abnegation (The Selfless), Dauntless
(The Brave), Erudite (The Intelligent), Amity (The Peaceful), and Candor (The
Honest). Also, how was it decided what the core values of each faction would
be? There are some vague comments throughout the book about a war that happened
at some point in the past, but it’s never fully explored or explained.
As I said in my reviews for
Abigail Barnette’s books First Time (Ian’s Story) and First Time (Penny’s Story), it really bothered me that Barnette didn’t
really provide a truly good explanation for why Penny had been waiting to lose
her virginity in “Ian’s Story”. The explanation for that part of Penny’s
backstory that was given in “Penny’s Story” ended up being very stupid and
rather vague, which led to it also being incredibly frustrating and disappointing.
I mention that only because much like the lack of a good backstory and
explanation for something that played a huge role in the story hurt both
versions of First Time, the lack of
world building, backstory and depth behind each of the five factions really
hurts Divergent as a whole.
Unfortunately for Divergent, the writing suffers a lot
more due to its lack of backstory and world building since the book’s biggest
flaws have to do with the key aspects of the story rather than being things
that would be easier to forgive when it comes to any weaknesses that a story
may have. Personally, I think the existence of good world building and thoroughly
establishing backstory is especially important in books involving elements of
fantasy or societies that are very different from the society we live in today.
If an author neglects to give their characters and the plot a good and well
written backstory, then the book really faces an uphill battle when it comes to
being able to impress and entertain people, in my opinion.
That brings me to the other
major problem that this book has. I feel like Veronica Roth oversimplifies what
it means to be human by only having five factions in the story and treating
being classified as divergent as something that’s bad and something to be
ashamed of if they can’t be easily put into one category. To me, being
divergent basically means that a person has depth and acknowledges the fact
that everybody has their own unique personality. The fact that Roth never
really explains why being divergent is supposed to be a bad thing really causes
the writing for the book as a whole to suffer. When it comes to the fact that
this book really seems to emphasize the idea that people should embrace
conformity and that being divergent is something that’s bad really reminded me a
lot of the Borg collective from the Star
Trek franchise. If you’re not very familiar with Star Trek, the Borg collective basically routinely commit genocide
of numerous alien races across the galaxy and strip people of their
individuality by assimilating them and turning them into Borg in their quest to
achieve perfection.
I really dislike the entire
attitude towards family that this book conveys with the whole, “Faction before
blood” motto, and the fact that it sounds like most people are pretty much
disowned by their families if they decide to leave the faction that they were
born into and join a different faction when they turn sixteen. Sure, it’s
established that there is a visitation day where initiates can see their families,
but the way Tris talks about that in the narration, it sounds like a lot of
parents choose not to visit their children if they transfer to a different
faction. I can kind of see why some parents might view their children choosing
to join a different faction as being disloyal to their family, but I still think
it’s wrong for parents to basically disown their children simply because they choose
to live by a different moral code, even if that moral code could be viewed as
good and honorable. It’s also one of the ways that I think the characters in
this book are discouraging people from expressing their individuality and
encouraging them to embrace conformity. The way Roth emphasized the whole
“Faction before blood” also really came across as a very cult-like way of
thinking to me, which is one of the main reasons that really bothered me.
A quick side note that I’d
like to make is that I really liked the revelation that Tris’ mom, Natalie, had
been born into a family that was a part of the Dauntless faction and that she
had transferred to Abnegation. That reveal kind of reminded me of how in
Stephenie Meyer’s book The Host, The
Seeker ended up revealing to the protagonist, Wanderer, AKA, Wanda, that she
hasn’t been able to completely suppress the mind of her host, much like
Wanderer/Wanda experiences throughout the book with her own host, Melanie.
Sadly, the fact that Tris’ mom was originally a member of the Dauntless faction
isn’t explored in this book. However, from what I’ve read about the series on Wikipedia,
it sounds like the fact that Tris’ mom originally being a member of the
Dauntless faction is expanded upon in the other books in the series.
Personally, I think that
Tris’ mom originally being from the Dauntless faction is one of the many things
that Roth should have fleshed out a lot more in this book instead of apparently
waiting until she wrote the other books in the series to develop that plot
point. The death of Tris’ mom and a lot of her mom’s actions throughout the
book didn’t make that much of an impression on me due to the lack of character
development for Natalie in this book. I really think that her mom’s death would
have had more of an impact on me if Roth had done more to develop Natalie’s
backstory as originally being from the Dauntless faction and her decision to
transfer to Abnegation before Natalie was killed.
For the record, when I first
started reading this book, I was really enjoying it. However, reading this book
eventually started to feel rather tedious since the majority of the book
revolves around Tris going through the Dauntless initiation process, which basically
involves them going through dangerous simulations and other potentially
dangerous situations. Perhaps that sounds like it would be exciting to read
about if you haven’t read this book yet, but I felt like it just got way too
repetitive after a while. Reading the parts where Tris was going through her training
got me thinking a lot about the Harry
Potter books and how the parts in those books that focused on the things
that Harry and all of the other characters learned about in their classes at
Hogwarts were a lot more interesting and engaging than almost everything that
Tris did for Dauntless’ initiation process.
The reason I say that is
that there always seemed to be some kind of looming threat or subplot going on
at the same time, which really helped add some tension to the story in each of
the Harry Potter books. Plus, the
characters were able to use a lot of the things that they learned in their
classes to help them deal with the various threats that they faced throughout
the series. Getting back to the subject of Divergent,
I really wish that Roth had beefed up Jeanine Matthews’ presence in the story,
because the parts of the story that involved Jeanine were all very interesting,
and they did add at least some compelling tension to the story. Plus, I feel
like Roth waited too long before she made it clear just how important Jeanine
was to the story.
In my opinion, the overall pacing
of the book is rather uneven. It started out strong and the story is very
exciting and engaging at first, then it begins to feel rather tedious,
repetitive and dull once Tris has been going through Dauntless initiation for a
while. Unfortunately, the story continues to feel rather tedious and repetitive
for a large chunk of the book, and it doesn’t really pick up and get truly
exciting again until towards the end of the book when Jeanine’s whole agenda is
revealed and she starts to carry out her plan.
One thing that I think could
have made this book a lot better and a lot more interesting is if it had been
written from several different characters’ points of view, with each character
belonging to one of the five different factions. I think it’s really
disappointing that there are five different factions, and yet the only faction
that’s thoroughly explored and developed throughout the book is Dauntless.
Personally, I think it’s really disappointing that Roth has created a
relatively elaborate society in this series with the whole five factions
system, but we ultimately don’t get to see what the initiation process is like
for the other factions in this book. Since I haven’t read the other books in
the series at this point in time, I obviously don’t know if she develops the
other factions more in the other books in the series, though. However, given
the fact that I found Divergent to be
rather disappointing, I’m honestly not feeling extremely motivated to read the
rest of the series at the moment.
Something that really
baffled me regarding the whole five-faction system was the attitude towards the
factionless. Throughout the entire book, the factionless are basically viewed
as being a problem for their society, and yet there were parts in the book
where it seemed like the simplest thing could lead to a person becoming
factionless. For example, after the choosing ceremony, Tris and the other Dauntless
initiates are all jumping onto a moving train, and one of the initiates fails
to make the jump onto the train, which apparently means that they’re
factionless. Throughout the whole training process, it’s made clear that if
initiates don’t rank high enough, then they become factionless. I honestly
don’t completely know what to think about that, whether I should view that as
being rather ridiculous and absurd thinking on the characters’ part, or if I
should just view that as being bad and moronic writing on Veronica Roth’s part.
For a part of the story,
Tris was facing the possibility of being cut from the Dauntless’ initiation
process since she wasn’t ranking very highly compared to the rest of the
Duantless’ initiates. While everything with Tris going through the Dauntless’
initiation process definitely began to feel incredibly repetitive after a while,
Tris facing the possibility of being cut from the Dauntless initiation process definitely
created some interesting tension story wise. However, the fact that some
Dauntless initiates are cut and therefore become factionless if they don’t do
well enough during the whole initiation process also really frustrated me to a
certain extent, too. Throughout the whole book, it’s pretty clear that being
factionless is viewed as something bad and something that’s a problem for their
society. However, based on what little we, the reader, are shown of their
government, not only does it sound like they aren’t doing much to help the
factionless; they’re only perpetuating the problems that the factionless
apparently cause by having the stupidest and simplest things lead to more
people becoming factionless, if you ask me. That just doesn’t really make any
sense to me, and it comes across as bad writing on Roth’s part.
That being said, the entire
attitude towards the factionless that the rest of society seems to have is one
of the reasons why I think the point of view for the book should have been
split between Tris, Caleb since he chose to join the Erudite faction, an Amity initiate,
and a Candor initiate. Since Tris and Caleb originally came from an Abnegation
family, I’m not sure if I think Roth should have had another relatively
significant character from the Abnegation faction in the story, though. If Roth
really wanted to make things interesting, perhaps she could have had another
character that was factionless, and maybe that could have involved a subplot
where that character organizes an uprising of some kind with other people who
are factionless.
There would definitely be
some pros and cons to doing that if Roth had gone that route. On the one hand,
I think that writing the book from alternating points of view could have potentially
really given this book some much needed depth and compelling action. However,
on the downside, doing that could have made this book very long. Plus, I’m not
entirely sure that writing the book from alternating points of view would have
automatically given the writing for this book more depth.
The reason I say this is
because Tris is unfortunately somewhat lacking in depth, especially when it
comes to the fact that she’s Divergent. The way Tris being Divergent is written,
the other characters make it sound like being Divergent is something that’s bad
and should be feared, and yet it’s not like she’s able to do anything truly
dangerous, at least the way the concept of being Divergent is portrayed in this
book. In the story, all it really seems to mean is that when Tris is in a
simulation, she apparently has the ability to manipulate the simulation. Outside
of the story, being Divergent seems to mean that she can’t be easily defined by
any one trait and that she actually has a personality. However, Roth ultimately
doesn’t really do anything with Tris’ “abilities” outside of the simulations
when she’s dealing with reality, which kind of makes Tris being Divergent all
feel rather pointless to me. The fact that Tris being Divergent doesn’t actually
make her seem truly special really causes the book as a whole to suffer since
it’s supposed to be such a huge part of the story.
As I was reading Divergent, I had a really hard time
understanding why anybody in their right mind would choose to join the Dauntless
faction. Even after finishing this book, I’m still not sure why people would
want to join Dauntless. The way the Dauntless faction was portrayed in the
book, they all seem like a bunch of thrill seeking adrenaline junkies, and
apparently that’s supposed to mean that the Dauntless are brave. As far as I’m
concerned, a person intentionally putting themselves in dangerous situations
doesn’t automatically mean that they’re a brave person. To me, the Dauntless
just seem reckless and like they’re just begging to wind up dead, and I’m not
sure how their society can actually benefit from people acting like that all
the time. However, it sounds like members of the Dauntless faction get jobs
working as security guards. Personally, I believe that people don’t need to be
willing to constantly put themselves in danger in order to be viewed as being brave.
Frankly, the Dauntless come across as having some serious self-destructive
tendencies, and it just completely and utterly baffles me that Roth seems to
equate being self-destructive with demonstrating bravery in this book. That’s
just a really bad message to convey to people, in my opinion, especially to teenagers
given the fact that the Divergent series
is a YA book series.
When it comes to Tris’
decision to join the Dauntless faction, I can kind of understand and even relate
to the fact that Tris felt like she doesn’t belong in the Abnegation faction
despite the fact that she was born into it. I know from personal experience
what it feels like to be a part of a group, and still feel like you don’t truly
belong or fit in with them. Not feeling like you fit in with a group of people,
regardless of whether they’re friends for family, is definitely a very lonely
and terrible feeling. For that reason, I can kind of understand why Tris chose
to not remain a part of the Abnegation faction. However, I’m still not entirely
sure I understand what motivated Tris to transfer to the Dauntless faction out
of all of the other factions. Roth kind of gives the reader some insight into
Tris’ thought process when she’s trying to decide what faction she’s going to
choose at the choosing ceremony, but out of all the parts of the story that
felt way too rushed for me; it was definitely the beginning of the book when
Tris is trying to decide which faction she’ll choose when it comes time for the
choosing ceremony, while also dealing with the fact that her test results for
the aptitude test were inconclusive.
That being said, I do really
like the character Tris for the most part. In general, I think she’s a very
likable character, even though Tris, as a character, felt somewhat lacking in
depth and complexity. As I said in my review for 99 Days by Katie Cotugno, it’s usually very hit or miss
when it comes to whether or not I like the protagonist of a YA novel. While
Tris definitely bugged me when it came to how she reacted to hearing Al crying
himself to sleep at night, I still ultimately really liked Tris in the end. I’m
sorry, it just really pisses me off when people act like boys aren’t allowed to
cry or display any kind of vulnerability around other people. That being said,
I do love that she’s not all wishy-washy and somewhat of a spineless doormat
like Bella Swan from the Twilight series
had a tendency to be. Don’t get me wrong, I do like the Twilight series, even with all of its flaws and the ridiculous gender swap novel, but there’s no denying that Bella definitely annoyed
the hell out of me at times, especially when it came to New Moon, but I digress.
While this book definitely
has a lot of problems, especially when it comes to having less depth than the
shallow end of a kiddie pool in some ways, I honestly thought that some of the
supporting characters displayed more depth and complexity than Tris did at times,
namely Al and Tobias “Four” Eaton. That being said, I thought that it was
really sad that Al ended up killing himself. Personally, I think that Al was a
character that had a lot of potential. While I’m currently on the fence about
reading the other books in the series, I’m still very interested in reading the
short story collection that focuses on Four, because Four is definitely my
favorite character in the book.
I feel like I should mention
that I watched the movie adaptation of Divergent
for the first time while I was in the process of reading the book. When it
comes to how I feel about the book versus the movie, I’d say that I actually
liked the movie a little more than I liked the book. I especially liked Kate
Winslet’s portrayal of Jeanine Matthews. Ultimately, it’s hard for me to
explain why exactly I liked the movie more than I liked the book, but the story
itself just worked better as a movie than it did as a book for me personally.
All things considered, I
really did go into reading Divergent
with a lot of excitement and anticipation, and when I started reading this
book, I was genuinely enjoying it. However, the farther I got into it, the more
dissatisfied I became with it. Don’t me wrong; Divergent isn’t an outright bad book. If anything, the book is simply
very underwhelming and lacking in depth in a lot of ways, especially when it
comes to the world building that’s showcased in the book. If Roth had added
some more depth to the characters and hadn’t oversimplified the core beliefs of
each faction down to just one personality trait, this book probably could have
been a lot better. Before I started reading Divergent,
I was very interested in reading the entire Divergent
series (Including Four: A Divergent
Collection), but now after having read Divergent,
I have to say that the jury is currently still out on whether or not I will
read the rest of the series.
That being said, my final
score for Divergent is 5 out of 10.
