Divergent and Insurgent

 

 I realize I've lacked on my so-called book reviews recently.  I'm currently reading Deception Point by Dan Brown (as shown in the picture above, it's a "real" book.  We're both off of our Kindle's for the time being).  However, I have a few books to share reviews on; the first being a double whammy with Divergent and Insurgent by Veronica Roth.

 

Veronica Roth wrote Divergent during college as a creative writing project. How cool is that? She maintains a blog you can check out here.

 

These are the first two books of a trilogy (the third book hasn't been written yet). It was selected for our October book club and were quiet popular. 

 

Divergent



The basis for the series is a post modern world, similar to Hunger Games.  Another coincidence is that the main character is a young female (Beatrice/Tris). However, the world in Divergent is very different from Hunger Games and present day.  Their world exists of five factions; believed to be the five basic qualities needed to survive:

• Abnegation: The selfless
• Amity: The peaceful
• Candor: The honest
• Dauntless: The brave
• Erudite: The intelligent



 Children are raised in their factions and at age 16 they take an aptitude test.  After the test, often based on it's results, children decide which faction they want to live in the rest of their lives, which may mean leaving their families behind.

 

The book follows the main character through her decision and the consequences.  I don't want to say too much without giving away details.  If you liked Hunger Games, I think you would love this! It's a fairly quick read (it is a young adult series after all); plus it's based in a futuristic Chicago (which was fun for me).

 

 Insurgent

...pretty much picks up exactly where Divergent leaves off; which is good because I was dying to know what happens next. There's an impending war between factions and Tris is determined she can help stop it.

The only bad thing about Insurgent is that we have to wait for the third book to come out to know what happens.

 

Divergent  has been picked up for a movie, supposedly to come out in 2013, so one would anticipate book 3 (yet to be named) to debut before the movie.

 

Have you read anything worthwhile recently?