Divergent & Insurgent by Veronica Roth Joint Review

 Divergent Summary

In Beatrice Prior’s Dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). ON an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the Decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she’s kept hidden from everyone because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

• Number of pages: 487

Insurgent Summary

One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity, and loyalty, politics and love.

Tris’s initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guild, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

• Number of pages: 525

Joint Review

Completely different from what you would expect from a dystopian series about to be made into a movie with enough buzz to almost catch up to the Hunger Game Movies. Completely different in a good way, that is. I read Divergent and became instantly entranced in this new societal world where the best virtues are separated into different societies within a society, and how each virtue standing alone could corrupt the very system they were trying to protect. The way this system of factions was set up was absolutely incredible with the amount of detail and surprisingly believability. The characters only served to cement that world into reality with the profoundness of the characters, their depth.

Before I get carried away with the admiration of the characters and their stories, I was to distinguish the assets of this series as a whole because this is a joint review after all. I am writing a joint review because I loved the first book so much that I barely left enough time to drive to Barnes & Noble to get book 2, Insurgent, and start reading. By the time I finished I slowed down enough to realize that the best parts of both books became mashed together in my mind and I ended up seeing it as one really big book. Probably not my best idea for blogging purposes, but it had its perks. In conclusion, this series captured me enough to feel it was absolutely necessary to read it continuously. That’s got to be saying something, right?

Tris is a rock star. I am not even exaggerating that. She was everything a protagonist should be: BELIEVABLE. I think that’s why I liked this book so much. Although completely improbable and we all know that this will never happen in real life, there was reality interwoven between all aspects of it. A huge part of that were Tris and the other characters. They were not too strong, nor were they too weak but miraculously reached their goals or whatever. That kind of stuff happens too often in Young Adult fiction, unfortunately. Tri, for instance, was strong willed but not untouchable. And she was not the weepy-damsel-in-distress-heroine, yet real enough to show emotions, tears, fears, and etc. Very admirable, yet very relatable.

Personally, if I had to say which book was my favorite so far, I would have to say Insurgent (book 2). Which I think is great, my reason being that many times in series like this one sequel sometimes do not live up to the original installment and can leave fans unsatisfied. Insurgent totally satisfies and does much more. Both books alone were great and had great aspects, but Insurgent just seemed to have more depth.  Book one, to me, was very much a set up of everything to come. This world is so complex that I think it needed a whole book to break out the characters and situation, which is clearly does with the amount of information on the initiation and different ways of the factions. Book two really seemed to break the shell set up in the first book and bring the true conflict. There was more variety in scenes and situation, and I was always left on the edge of my seat. Yeah, it was one of those. Amazing.

As I looked up the summary for Divergent for my post, I came across the information for the Divergent movie premiering March of next year. I can definitely say I got chills from the trailers. If those are any indication then I believe that this will fortunately be one of those book adaption movies that stay true to the book’s plot. I CAN’T WAIT. This series was honestly great, and comes highly recommended from me. From 1-10 as a whole? Divergent series (Divergent and Insurgent) gets a 9.