Divergent is about a teenage girl named Beatrice. She lives in a dystopian world separated into five different factions: Dauntless, Amity, Erudite, Candor and Abnegation. Each faction has its own pros and cons, and the people within each group share similar characteristics based on personality. Once teenagers are old enough, they have the choice to choose the faction that they will remain in for the rest of their life. Beatrice has grown up with an Abnegation family, but does not feel as though that is where she belongs. She knows that she can’t condemn herself to a future in Abnegation, and she may have to abandon and betray her family to do what’s best for herself.
The day comes for testing, where each teen goes through simulations and tracks how they respond to each situation to suggest the faction they should choose. When Beatrice does this, she gets “Divergent”- an invalid result that is extremely rare. It means that she showed attributes in multiple different areas, and that the final choice was up to her. What will Beatrice do? Will she betray her family, or live a future that she doesn’t see herself in? Will she choose Dauntless, where people are so brave that they risk their lives for enjoyment? Or Erudite, where science and knowledge is above all? The possibilities are endless, yet uncertain.
I enjoyed reading Divergent because it was entertaining and remained fast-paced throughout the majority of the book. I would rate it a 3 out of 5 stars because it was an enjoyable read but didn't have anything special or particularly memorable. Despite being a famous book, also made into movies, I had too high expectations for it. In the end, it was still fun to read and I would recommend this to kids, teens and young adults that enjoy dystopia!