By
Binker
I had never heard of the "Divergent" trilogy until one weekend when my newspaper had a short article about the author and I saw "The Hunger Games," with a teaser for the new "Divergent" movie. I thought it looked interesting and bought the first book, quickly followed by the next 2.
I often enjoy fantasy or scifi YA fiction, with some notable exceptions. I thought the "Twilight" books were unreadable garbage, the first one stinking slightly less than the others, but none of them being good. I was hesitant about "The Hunger Games," not because it was YA, but because the underlying story is so horrifying. But I read and enjoyed them, although I didn't think they were particularly well-written. I like the "Divergent" trilogy even more, although I have my reservations about the second two books, particularly the last one (more on that later).
The book is set in a future Chicago, large parts of which are an uninhabitable wasteland of partly-demolished buildings. The river and part of Lake Michigan that were part of Chicago are now marshy. Everyone who lives in Chicago belongs to one of 5 factions, which are named based upon the specific characteristic that the faction members fully embody. The Abnegation value self-denial and service to others. The Amity value friendship and peace. The Candor believe in being frank and open. The Dauntless value fearlessness. And the Erudite value knowledge. At 16, each child takes a test to find out which faction best suits them and the next day, they have to choose where to go. Usually, children are suited for and choose the faction in which they grew up, but not always.
Our heroine, Tris Prior, is raised in Abnegation, but finds that she is suitable for 3 factions (Abnegation, Dauntless, and Erudite). That means that she is "divergent." For some reason, this is considered very dangerous and her test-giver tells her to tell no one that she is divergent and fudges her scores to show that she's only suitable for one. Tris then chooses Dauntless and goes to their "area" to receive training, which reminds me a lot of my son's black belt training only with more sadism. There, she meets a young man, Tobias (nicknamed "Four") who is one of her trainers. They fall in love and, I am very happy to report, there is no love triangle.
The Abnegation are the leaders of Chicago because, obviously, you should only want as your leaders people who don't want it for themselves. But they seek to impose their values on others and not all the others (particularly the Erudite) agree that selflessness is so wonderful. So they stage an uprising that involves Tris and Tobias and their friends taking sides and making decisions, often with insufficient or inaccurate information. Roth does a very good job of slowly revealing the complications, some of which I guessed, but several of which I did not. By the end, there are significant challenges to the entire faction system, but every victory is hard won and no victory is complete.
The writing is actually pretty good. I know that sounds like faint praise, but what I mean is while Roth is no Stegner, she does create some very good images. At one point, Four leaves the trainees with Eric, who is a sadist, and Tris thinks, "Four leaving makes me nervous. Leaving us with Eric is like hiring a babysitter who spends his time sharpening knives." There are a lot of images in the book like that, which makes it fun to read.
Roth also fully explores the concept that everyone's best quality is also their worst. The Erudite value knowledge, but don't care how it is used at all. A children's rhyme describes them as cold. The Dauntless value freedom from fear and so the same children's rhyme describes them as cruel. The Abnegation don't allow for any individual decision-making. The Amity want everyone to get along to the point that they won't defend one group when they are attacked by the other. And you can imagine the problem with Candor. She actually does a good job with this aspect of the story and since it's really the focus of the trilogy, that's a good thing.
I found the plotting solid. Nothing really moved too quickly or too slowly and most of the story hung together well. I thought the middle book was the weakest on plot. I kept getting confused and then I read that the author said that the huge success of the first book meant she had to get the second one out quickly and so she had to rush it. It shows a bit and I'm sorry that that happened to her. A more established writer might have been able to push back, but I don't get the feeling she did that.
The third book had a problem that I also attributed to the rush. With few exceptions, she alternates the chapters, one being told by Tris and one being told by Four. Even though they seem like very different people in the books, it was hard to keep straight whose voice you were hearing. They sound too much alike, so that if I stopped reading mid-chapter, I would pick up the book, start reading, and then have to look back to remind myself which character was talking.
The biggest problem in the third book for many, many people and the reason that it gets lower ratings in amazon and other places (but not from me) than the other 2 books is
If you like dystopian YA fiction, this is really a very good example. I recommend it highly within the genre.
By lunababymoonchild
By Binker
By Flingo
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