Well, decided to go with a book review.
Modern day reads have seriously deteriorated from what used to be acceptable. All the great writers from Shakespeare and Austen are rolling in their graves with what people choose to read today. Despite my love for the classics, I must admit that I have read several of series popular today. Mostly out of curiosity and to be informed of what others are reading.
The most popular genre seems to be futuristic end of the world reads as seen in the Hunger Games series and the Divergent series. What is the point of such books? To inspire fear? Think about it, if the world ever got to a place where pitting young teens against each other as a form of control were acceptable, that would be a very messed up world. Books of this genre seem to be geared to take the horror out of such situations, but it's still horrible no matter how you package it.
All that said, I have read these books, and I won't bother with a review on the Hunger Games. But Divergent, as far as young adult reads go, was a least better than the Hunger Games series.
The premise of the Divergent series is that the world has created this utopia of sorts where, by dividing people by their primary talents, a perfect system can be created that can be used to save the world. Not that is clear until the 2nd and the 3rd book to the reader. Basically the world is falling apart so they brainwash a generation and place them a gated city far enough from civilization that they believe they are the only people left, or if they aren't they are too scared to leave the gate that they are content where they are.
The people in the walled up city (originally Chicago) are divided into 'factions' based on their primary character traits. The factions are:
Abnegation: The Selfless, plain-dressing, helpful, (government comes from this faction as well).
Erudite: The Intelligent, students, involved in technology and science.
Dauntless: The Brave/soldiers, protectors of the gate, ruthless.
Amity: The Peaceful, actually live outside the fence, farmers, nature lovers
Candor: The Honest
Children are born into their parents factions, and when they are 16 they take a test which tells them what faction they are best fit for. They can choose to stay in the one they grew up in, or if the test recommends a different faction they can join that one. At the choosing ceremony they cut their hands and drip their blood on the bowl representing the faction they choose.
Enter the glitch in this system - Beatrice Prior a girl from the Abnegation. She is divergent, meaning the computer test that is supposed to dictate her life isn't smart enough to place her in a faction, because like most normal people she has multiple good traits. She is brave, selfless and smart.
Beatrice chooses Dauntless, changes her name to Tris, and starts the vigorous training that new members must go through in order to stay in the Dauntless faction. Enter the predictability of the book- she overcomes the obstacles and survives the training, and cue the romance of the series with Four (aka: Tobias, a kid Tris grew up with who ran away because his father (an Abnegation role model) was secretly abusive).
Then we get to the climax. Turns out that the Erudite have been planning to overthrow the happy system by attacking the Abnegation by mind controlling the Dauntless. But Tris and Four (who is also divergent) cannot be controlled by the serum that affects the rest of the Dauntless. Unfortunately Four gets caught and forced to take another special serum that can override even his Divergent abilities. This leaves Tris, with the help of her father and brother to destroy the computer system the Erudite are using to control the Dauntless. (Tris's mom was shot saving Tris). So the three of them break into the computer room, being controlled by a drugged up Four and stop the overtaking. Sadly, lives are lost (including Tris's father) and the entire city is in an uproar at what has happened.
The book ends as they all (Tris, un-drugged Four, her brother, Four's abusive father and Peter the jerk from Dauntless) ride off in a train to Amity to re-coup.
As the first book sets up the basic story I will quickly sum up the last two books. In the second book they continue recovering from the attack, trying to set up some sort of peace with the Erudite leader who started the whole mess. We also find out that Tobia's mother is alive (her death was staged so she could escape her abusive husband, although she left her 8 year old son to be his sole outlet; setting up some lovely mother/son issues as they are forced to work together and Tobias has to decided if he will forgive her and if he can trust her.) Needless to say that doesn't go well- the peace attempt and mother/son reconciliation. Also, the romance angle is on an ever present roller coaster, yes, they love each other, but of course we need to have all this drama and stupidity to keep it from getting boring. Eventually they try to stage an attack on the Erudite compound which isn't very successful but they do find a video that tells them that they are really a giant experiment and that the rest of the world just placed them in their city to try and solve their own problems. Not considering them people but more like lab rats. Tris finds out her mom was one that willingly chose to be brainwashed and join the project. End book 2.
The third book begins as a team of them go outside the fence and find the organization that placed them in the city. This organization is just concerned with finding a solution to the world's problems and isn't particularly caring about what happened. Instead, it just wants to re-brainwash the entire city so they forget the overthrowing. The head of the organization tries to recruit Tris- mainly because he was in-love with Tris's mother before she went into the city. But Tris will have none of it, she knows that brainwashing the city again is not the way to go. So *spoiler alert* they take over the organization and Tris ends up dying *gasp! We just killed off a main character?!*. The book ends as everyone else figures out how to live happily ever after.
Good things about this series? Well, if technology keeps advancing this could one day be possible so I guess it's not too far 'out there'. While I did like Tris's character, I think it was a good move on the author's part to kill her. Life isn't perfect, the good people don't always make it. Tris chose to do the right thing even though she knew she was going to die. The world in general is too selfish so a book where the character actually has character was refreshing.
If I were to rate this I would give it a 5/10 rating. Again, what does it really teach anyone? Can this be applied to real life? Not particularly. Also, Veronica Roth is a good writer, but somewhat sloppy. She makes a novice mistake between book 1 and book 2 and that is really disappointing. Yeah, it was a small detail she messed up, but if she messed that up maybe there are more mistakes that I did not catch. If you're going to write a series you really need to pay attention to details. But at least she doesn't negate her series like Suzanne Collins did with the Hunger Games (rant for another time.)
I guess the moral (?) of the Divergent Series could be: Bad things happen to good people, put a helmet on and move on. Or: When the world is all about conforming, being yourself is bad but it could save the world. Be different.
Anyway.. if you got anything out of that please comment and let me know. Otherwise maybe it made you laugh.
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