Divergent

Veronica Roth
Divergent Cover

Divergent

jynnantonnyx
10/10/2013
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Like many YA novels, there's not a whole lot going on here beyond some low-level teenage angst and drama. That being admitted, the world in which this drama takes place is rather interesting. The setting is a dystopian future Chicago, which is walled off from the rest of the world, and whose population is split into strictly-delineated factions, each embodying a distinct philosophy of life. At the age of 16, each young person is given the opportunity to choose the faction he will spend the rest of his life with; usually they choose the one they were raised in, but occasionally they find they have an aptitude for another faction. Rarely, a person has an aptitude for two or more factions, gaining the description "divergent," which is considered dangerous and something worth killing over.

As I said, there's not a lot here except for some interesting world-building and some fun action sequences. It's light entertainment that may or may not be better than your usual YA fare, but I wouldn't really know.