I liked Divergent a lot. It was fast paced, well-written, and interesting. The action was nonstop, so the book kept me engaged throughout. I am eager for the next book in the series.
I could have given the book five stars, and I'll tell you why I didn't. First, there were the odd words that didn't ring right when reading (or in this case, listening to). Slacks. Who says "slacks"? The word popped up frequently in the beginning and it was distracting. "Slacks" is an old person word. It sounded strange, especially when later Beatrice started saying "pants" instead. Other words like "abnigation" and "erodite" also sounded awkward. Tobias....Beatrice. Was there a sale on syllables? And speaking of which, that was another annoyance. We are introduced to Beatrice in the beginning. Horrid name, but then she shortens it to Triss. Okay, that's good. We meet Four. Unusual name but good for a character. Then, halfway through the book, they are no longer Triss and Four. They are Beatrice and Tobias. Can we just pick a name and stick with it?
These things are minor nitpicks and not enough reason to knock off a star. But add those annoyances to the fact that I wasn't quite a believer. I wasn't buying it, the whole post apocolyptic world of factions. I love dystopian fiction, but there are usually more convincing reasons for dystopian survivors to create quirky societies. In City of Ember, for example, the community was organized in a way that rationed resources. In Hunger Games, people went along with the barbaric rules because of tyrant leaders. In Divergent, Beatrice's explanation was simply that "it works." That reasoning was weak to me. The factions sounded like church denominations, which leads me to conclude that many people would choose not to be factioned. I didn't see the advantage of factions at all. Again, the weak explanation is that it would be horrible not to have a faction. Why? Was there a reason factionless people couldn't build their own houses or grow their own food? They couldn't find valuable commodities to trade?
I also didn't understand how there were so few resources and yet there seemed to be raw materials everywhere. How did a 100-story building survive the destruction of the world? How did a ferris wheel and carousel survive? Even if they did survive, that is a lot of metal, wood, and glass that can be converted into cars and houses. Another thing I struggled with was the initiation, for several reasons. For one, the initiation seemed to be run by a couple of 18-year-olds. Where were the real adults and why did the initiation involve beating each other up? What was the point of jumping off trains? I had a lot of trouble swallowing the physical aspects of Triss' endeavor. She never exerted physical effort in her life and suddenly she's running, jumping off of trains, and fighting. Even if we called her ambitious, it's not likely that anyone could endure so much physical abuse in so short a time.
It's not obvious from my rants, but I really did like this book. I just wanted it to be a bit more polished. I am hoping that before the next book in the series, the author will patch up a few of the holes.
