Overall Rating and Opinion of Divergent

Discuss the June 2014 book of the month Divergent by Veronica Roth. While only Divergent--the first book of the series--is the book of the month, feel free to use this subforum to discuss the rest of the series or to talk about the movies, but make sure not to post spoilers unless noted in the topic title.
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How do you rate Divergent?

1 star - poor, recommend against reading it
9
5%
2 stars - fair, okay
21
11%
3 stars - good, recommend it
83
43%
4 stars - excellent, amazing
81
42%
 
Total votes: 194

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ashepat
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Re: Overall Rating and Opinion of Divergent

Post by ashepat »

I actually really enjoyed Divergent. I typically steer clear of trending reads until the hype has died down. I took a different approach with divergent and am so glad that I did. I loved the suspense, action and cringing details. It is always interesting to find reads that are very futuristic but still relatable to characters and the plot. I went through the entire series within days and ate up every moment of it. I had to take a break from reading for a few days just to accept the story was over before starting another book. I recommend this read to everyone.
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accioawesomeness
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Post by accioawesomeness »

I read this a while back and it was a good book: not the most original concept (the typical YA dystopian fiction) but still interesting with a fairly well-written narration. Our heroine Tris is likeable and strong but kept realistic and quite relatable. I think many young readers can connect with her dilemmas of discovering her identity and finding her own place in society. There's lots of drama, emotion, interesting variety of characters.
The dystopian world is what has me slightly annoyed, however. It sometimes feels as if this future society was not designed this way because it is the way it would happen, but instead to push along the character and plot. The faction system is tedious, if not a bit odd? and only really serves as a way to create drama and plot structure. It bothered me a lot because it seemed unrealistic that the world in the future would fall to such a system of vague personality tests? With our advances in technology, surely there would be some more effective and technical way to analyze a person if we really wanted to make full use of their potential/aptitudes?
In the end, I found this book quite enjoyable. I know some of you might not get around to reading it simply because of the overwhelming amount marketing to teenage girls, but this book is quite a good read on its own and has many meaningful themes and characters that definitely stayed with me.
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Post by courtney8847 »

I liked the Divergent series for the most part, however the ending was rather disappointing. Not just because of the connection the reader grows with the character over time, but because I feel that *spoiler* killing off the main character in any book is a generally poor choice, as it makes it feel as though you've been taken on a wild goose chase in reading the series just to be let down at the end.
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Post by RooneysReviews »

Divergent was certainly an interesting read. It was recommended by a friend and made the hours pass by rather quickly. However, I felt that it was pretty predictable. The largest surprise was when Tris chose Dauntless when I really though she would pick a slower-paced faction. However, once she was there, it was pretty obvious where the romance interest would be (with the "bravest" person in the whole faction, of course) and that she would be special somehow (or... divergent) and something would happen that would start to topple the oppressive leadership. Of course, all of those happened in a pretty predictable order. I also felt that some things could have been explained a little better and the writing style left me confused and occasionally rereading paragraphs. Overall, it was entertaining but not a favorite and I will likely never read it again.
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Post by baasil999 »

I have decided to add this book to my bookshelf. It is soon gonna have its eleventh book :D :D :D
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Post by CynthiaG0199 »

I picked this book up because of all the online hype I kept running across. I enjoyed it. This is not one of my favorites though. It had action, adventure, romance and the whole finding-yourself thing. I just had to push myself to finish it. After hearing about what the second and third book are about, I'm not really interested in finishing the series. I'm just going to leave it as a stand alone book. I don't think I'm missing out on much by doing so.
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Post by jleach1973 »

My son got the Divergent series for Christmas and absolutely loved it! So, I decided to give it a try and I am so glad that I took a chance. Tris and Four are amazing characters and I love the themes running through this book such as being true to yourself, loyalty, character, etc. Surprisingly, I found that the movies based on the first two books only made me enjoy the series more and this is unusual for me. I have suggested to several friends that they should give this series a try, it's well worth the time!
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Post by VinuW »

Although I was disappointed with the ending (wasn't everyone?) I'd recommend this book to any YA reader. The characters were well written and the plot was engaging.
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Post by jbt 01 »

I thought it was really good slow at first but really sped up fast
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Post by jk385506 »

I had no idea what to expect when going into Divergent but I decided to give it a try to see what all the hype was about and I loved it!! I give it 5/5 stars. I think the four factions is a very interesting idea. The book was very fast paced and left me wanting more! I will definitely read Insurgent.
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Post by Hans08 »

Totally loved Divergent. I like the overall storyline and the heroine. I like her better than Katniss Everdeen. Tris for me is a better role model.
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Post by doyle5 »

I loved the first book. Tris had the right amount of weakness to give a sense of urgency and strength to keep you rooting for her. I do fell that she should have been kinder. Even though in Abnegation Tris was not considered selfless or kind enough, I do think that you would have been more so then anyone in Dauntless. This lack of kindness and selflessness makes her annoying towards the end of the series.
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Post by dhaller »

I have a couple big problems with Divergent, for which I gave it one star. Here are some of them.

1) The characters were not original. Trish is a standard, modern YA heroine, with no qualities I could discern that separate her from any other Bella/Katniss Mary Sue. Four is a hunky rebel. The bad guys are bad and the good guys are good.

2) The plot was very unoriginal. It had a sorting ceremony, training sequences, your standard YA romance...

3) There was no moral complexity. Granted, I wasn't expecting much, but I think the point could have been made that maybe the intelligent people ought to be in charge of the government? Maybe Abnegation was actually screwing things up? A legitimately selfless government probably does have its flaws - and how long had it been since there was a change in who held the power? Granted, mind control isn't a good thing, but it isn't as though we saw what the Dauntless were for anyway.
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Post by Kaitlyn12 »

I was recommended this series by a coworker of mine who finished the whole series in a week. I didn't expect much because she tended to recommend dull books, but once I got into it I couldn't stop. This was a very well written series.
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Post by Sarah_Khan »

I read the Divergent series only after watching the first movie. I liked the movie a lot which is why I decided to read the book and although I enjoyed reading the book because the plot was intriguing and adequately different. I thought it was pretty average in terms of writing and the characters and I'm not sure I would have given the books such a high rating if I hadn't watched the movie first.
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