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YA, Dystopia, 489 pages, Katherine Tegen Books
- Series: Divergent, Book 1. (Book 2: Insurgent, 2012.)
- Why I read it:
- Disclosure: Received a copy in my super-giant ALAN box of books. Awesome!
Beatrice "Tris" Prior has reached the fateful age of sixteen, the stage at which teenagers in Veronica Roth's dystopian Chicago must select which of five factions to join for life. Each faction represents a virtue: Candor, Abnegation, Dauntless, Amity, and Erudite. To the surprise of herself and her selfless Abnegation family, she chooses Dauntless, the path of courage. Her choice exposes her to the demanding, violent initiation rites of this group, but it also threatens to expose a personal secret that could place her in mortal danger. Veronica Roth's young adult Divergent trilogy launches with a captivating adventure about love and loyalty playing out under most extreme circumstances.The Long...
No bones about it: I am sick to death of dystopia, which is depressing, seeing as, done right, it's one of my favorite genres. (See: Brave New World, Who Fears Death, every Margaret Atwood novel ever.) Ever since The Hunger Games, though, it's become YA's newest cash cow instead of a place to tell good stories. Call me naive about how the world works, but I'd still like to think of books as a place to tell good stories as well as a place to make money, and that's exactly why I'm thrilled that Divergent manages to do both. Bravo, Ms. Roth, for you have accomplished that rare and lovely thing: the deserving blockbuster.
Call Divergent popcorny, a little silly, ridiculous and bizarre as a face-value dystopia. It is. Look at nearly every dystopia released in recent years, including The Hunger Games and with the notable exception of the excellent and all-too-real Ship Breaker, and you could apply the same criticism. A society that divides itself so rigidly, that so blatantly prides itself on conformity, that so single-mindedly upholds five traits? Please. If Roth had given it to us straight, this would be yet another disappointed review instead of an admiring one. Where Roth succeeds is in not playing it straight; in writing thinly veiled teen allegory instead, and pulse-pounding spectacular entertainment, at that.
All the adult characters are painted in bold, high-school-teacher-esque strokes. The five factions play double as high school cliques; nerds, jocks, goths, the after-school church group kids, and the vaguely friendly, popular ones that don't fit in any particular place are all in attendance. Roth's world is bold and gorgeous, but hardly holds up to intense scrutiny: it's all a cinematic backdrop for the angst and drama, and frankly, I prefer it that way.
This, mind you, is not to imply that Divergent doesn't pack a punch. One scene in particular involving an eye and a butter knife had my stomach turning over nicely. It is to imply that Divergent, even at Tris's darkest hours, never takes itself too seriously. And in the glut of do-or-die out there, what a fantastic relief.
Even the romance felt funny and self-aware: teacher-student pairings I do not 'ship, but for Tris and Four I might make an exception. No love triangles. No silly, contrived "We just can't BE together," though tension the relationship does not lack. No, it's just perfect, old-fashioned undercover romance, and I sincerely enjoyed every minute.
Flaws it has. Roth's writing is at times just a little too descriptive, especially of her characters of color, and sometimes the ridiculousness just gets a little too...ridiculous. Honestly, though, I was too delighted by this sort of action-adventure take on dystopia to care. How I wish more authors would go this route over the Katniss-wannabe-life-sucks-love-triangle.
and the Short:
Glorying in its campy, silly social commentary, Divergent is too entertaining and fantastically cinematic to miss. I'm excited for Insurgent!
The Final Word: Loved it!
Divergent is available now.
3 comments:
I felt the same way about this book. I think my problem was that it was hyped up so much, not to say that it didn't live up to the hype, but I thought it was a little misleading. I couldn't suspend my disbelief enough for me to truly believe it was a dystopian. Maybe if I had read it with the impression that it was more of a fantasy, I think I might have enjoyed it better, but as a dystopian it didn't really work for me. I think I read Shipbreaker a little bit before that and was just wishing the world was a little more bleak. I liked it well enough, it just wasn't what I was expecting. Perhaps if I had lowered my expectations of what it means to be a dystopian novel, I definitely would have enjoyed it more. (it also kinda reads like debut novel) That being said, Insurgent sounds like it'll be way better.
See, I went into this one expecting to hate it, simply because it had gotten so much hype. I think if I'd went in expecting something like Shipbreaker I would have been spectacularly disappointed.
Oh yay! So glad you loved it. I see what you mean. Divergent was gripping and all, but I don't still sit around and think about it. But yes, overall it was a great book, I thought.
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