Divergent Book Review

-

 Beatrice Prior lives in a (dystopian) society people have been separated into five factions based on what they blame is the cause of suffering in the world: Abnegation, the selfless, blame selfishness; Amity, the kind, blame aggression; Candor, the honest, blame duplicity; Dauntless, the brave, blame cowardice; Erudite, the intelligent, blame ignorance. The jobs these people take are based off of which faction they choose, Erudites may become teachers, scientists, librarians; Dauntless become guards who patrol the border between the town and the wilderness, or they take on jobs where they could protect civilians; Abnegation work in charities; they are also the only faction allowed to work in the government because they are so selfless (makes a lot of sense, but some think it’s a problem).  At the age of sixteen, everyone must take an aptitude test to find which faction they’re best fit for, to make their decision easier. Once they’ve chosen, they must go through an initiation with the possibility of failing and becoming factionless, their world’s version of becoming homeless. Tris must face one of the more intense initiations, also, she slowly discovers there’s an uprising in motion, remember the Abnegation-only-government-thing? Propaganda and politics was handled very well in the book IMO. There is talk of sex only in this book, nothing happens though. For the rest of the series there isn’t any sex either, (or at least no clear sex-moments happening) just a lot of descriptive cuddling/hugging. There was also a sexual assault(? not sure about the exact definition) where MC was groped on the chest while blind-folded. Also, there was a considerable amount of death.



Personal opinions SPOILERS: I didn’t like the way  Beatrice’s relationship with Tobias was handled, I thought it was a bit creepy with the teacher-student type thing. And then the conversation they had? “But you’re so much older than I am. A whopping two years, how crazy.”(paraphrased from memory) I thought it was a bit dismissive. I loved the characters and their upbringings and character arcs, and think the romance was handled a lot better in the other two books with the teacher-student relationship at least mostly out of the way. But it still felt really wrong, like how he touched her stomach just to “train her” before even knowing each other. Then there was Tris’ fear of sex, which was openly discussed. I think the topic had good intentions, introducing YA readers to the topic, but the people it was done with made the whole thing creepier rather than thought provoking for me. I almost DNFed the book because of it, but returned a few days later and found the series enjoyable. Also liked how there were romances for people other than the MC. Tris was very relatable for me in the first book too, enjoyed her character here a lot.

(also, fun fact, all the fancy words are in the dictionary, apparently!)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Short Story #1: I Am Most Proud of...

-
    This is a short story I wrote a few months ago with the writing prompt "I Am Most Proud of...". This may be a bit longer than other short stories that I may write about in the future, but I hope you'll enjoy it for the time being! I Am Most Proud of . . . (This is a short story with two points of views.) I am most proud of myself, for I, Patrick, the flying penguin, have gone on a journey across the globe to find someone who is equally as wonderful as I. Mind you, becoming a flying penguin is no small feat, I worked quite hard to become who I am today.  I am most proud of Patrick for managing to not die. My little brother Patrick has always been stupid. Once he pretended to be a human when he saw some other humans, but then fell into their campfire. Even though, as a penguin, he’s never seen fire before, any competent penguin would’ve known to stay away from the hot, red flames. The only way he survived was because the kind humans saved him. The humans gave him new w...
Read more

Lines of Courage

-
Lines of Courage is a Historical Fiction novel by Jennifer A Nielson about five children from different countries in World War I. Felix, who was present during the shooting of the Archduke. He felt that he should’ve done something that could’ve prevented the war from happening. Kara who has a tendency to break rules, and after saving the lives of a soldiers from enemy lines, her privileges were taken from her and she is no longer allowed near the patients.  Juliette who lost hope of reuniting with neither her family nor her dad. Dmitri who joined the war far too young in order to provide for his family. He’s seen his friends die, been in a prison camp, and targeted by his once boss for different political views. Finally Elsa who faced scorn and harassment for being born into privilege even though she was just as hungry and afraid as the rest of the people.  These five children, while having grown up in completely different environments, have only one goal. Peace. The question ...
Read more

The Da Vinci Code

-
Robert Langdon, a symbologist who teaches at Harvard, goes to France to give out a lecture. While in France, Langdon plans to meet with a famous curator named Jacques Sauniere. But in the middle of the night, Langdon is called to the Louvre museum, where he finds Sauniere murdered. The police captain, Bezu Fache, questions Langdon about his relations with Sauniere and if he knew what the messages that were written on and around Sauniere’s corpse meant. As Langdon continued to tell Fache what he knew, the cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, took a risk in order to warn Langdon about Fache’s suspicions. He believed Langdon was the murderer. But as they attempted to escape the museum, Langdon realized there was something bigger that was happening. Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu travel from place to place in search of the Holy Grail while on the run from not only the police, but also a religious society who will even kill so that the Grail would be destroyed. This book has many components which a...
Read more