Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Divergent by Veronica Roth

12 reviews

elija_20's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Literally could not put this book down. 

As someone who watched the films first and loved them, I can confidently say the books are SO much better. I loved all the little details and plot points that the film missed and just the description of Tris’ emotions that couldn’t be translated to film. 

One piece of advice I would give if you are reading this after watching the films is that the characters of Tris and especially Four are (in my opinion) very different to the books compared to the films. I would recommend starting the books with this in mind and you will enjoy it and relate to the characters better. 

Even if you haven’t watched the films, oh my goodness I would recommend this book to anyone. Cant wait to read the next one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Physical abuse, Violence, Confinement, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual content, War, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Sexual harassment, and Sexual assault

Minor: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, and Body shaming

cara_nm's review

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, War, Violence, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Suicide, Death of parent, and Bullying

Minor: Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Sexism, Medical content, Suicide attempt, and Vomit

readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Before getting into my thoughts on the book I want to mention that this was a reread after first picking it up around 2015. I read again out of curiousity after forgetting a lot of the plot and wanting to compare it to the movies.

That being said, I think this is one of the few examples where the movie is better than the book. The plot in the movie is much more cohesive, covering important details without repetition and dragging them out, and characters that are much more consistent in personality. I also wasn’t a big fan of the plot bouncing around. 

By cohesiveness I mean that there were just so many moments that could have been combined, altered, or switched around for a more compact story. I think each moment added something but it could have been done differently, like in the movie. There is so much more focus on the goals because of how everything is put together.

The book also has tons of repetition and drawn out arcs without fully delving into them. That applies to the characters as well as plot. I felt like we constantly were hearing how strong Tris is and how much she doesn’t want people to see her as weak, and there were moments that displayed that better in her actions. It could have been left at that, like in moments where she thought about comforting Al or Caleb, and decided not to. If anything it bothered her to see that “weakness” displayed. I like that Tris is a flawed character who feels she has to prove herself, especially given her age, but it became overkill at times. We see that Tris is strong, and that she’s worried about people not seeing her as strong, so it didn’t need to be states so much. There was also just so much of Tris getting through all the challenges and sims to become dauntless, which in retrospect is a subplot to the major plot. I think the movie was better at showing how she was navigating the world as Divergent and finding out what that meant in the midst of her training.

I also liked the personalities for the characters more in the movie, because we see moments of that in books, but it can be a bit inconsistent or less favorable. I think Four and Tori are better portrayed in the movies. 

Ultimately I think what is happening here is a big plot that is so dependent on who they are and where they fit in and other aspects that movie or shape the plot get overlooked. It also is not as creative as I remembered. Once more, with the movie outshining in terms of world building. 

Some noticeable changes or moments I marked down were: Four being drunk, Uriah bringing Tris to the zipline, more friction with Christina like with capture the flag, Edward being stabbed and deciding to be factionless, side characters like Molly and Drew having more visibility in the books, Tris’ mom visiting her in Dauntless compound, Four not helping Tris through the sim and the whole sim process being different in comparison to the movies, Jeanine being less involved and a bit more callous rather than smart in her presentation, Caleb deciding to be factionless once finding out what Erudite was up to, and how Jeanine wasn’t even in the ending (although this explains why she was left to live which the movie failed to do). The book ending was more lackluster. I also wasn’t a big fan of Tris hitting Four while knowing what his father had done to him. Especially with no apology and her being more upset about him embarrassing her than anything. For the plot being her having Abnegation traits, it didn’t feel on par with this nature she’s supposed to have. The book was also a bit darker, with Tris being sexually harrassed and assaulted on multiple occassions.

However, despite all the criticisms, I can still see why it got adapted because there is a lot of potential and you still end up invested in the characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Classism, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Confinement, Gore, Sexual assault, Suicide, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Violence, War, Blood, Domestic abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Vomit, Alcohol, Grief, and Mental illness

Minor: Child death

Homelessness, comment about scalping, near-drowning.

hayleyvem's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Death, Drug use, Gore, Kidnapping, Violence, Xenophobia, Bullying, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, and War

Moderate: Child abuse, Classism, Deadnaming, Medical content, Genocide, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

midnacine's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I'd been enthralled with this in high school but returning to it as an adult is... interesting. I didn't care about Tris the entire book, and found myself only invested when the story involved Four. The writing felt contrived and a lot of the concept was just really cringey, especially with Tris not knowing what the word Divergent meant for two-thirds of the book. World building was nice though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Death, Murder, Violence, Bullying, Blood, Child death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Medical content, Kidnapping, Body horror, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Child abuse, and Genocide

Minor: Vomit, Alcohol, War, Grief, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

embla_v's review

adventurous

4.5

En bra dystopisk ya bok. Jag tyckte den var bra och kommer definitivt fortsätta läsa trilogin. 

Det handlar om Beatrice som precis som alla andra sextonåringar måste välja falang. Ska hon stanna hos de osjälviska eller byta till de tappra, de lärda, de ärliga eller de fridfullt? 

Beatrice får möta många utmaningar i det dystopisk Chicago men är ändå en tjej man kan relatera till. Bra karaktärer, bra handling och bra skriven, en bok jag kan rekommendera alla som vill ha en dystopi för åldern unga vuxna (young adult). 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Kidnapping, Violence, Gun violence, Blood, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Suicide

Minor: Alcohol, Child abuse, Medical content, Grief, Sexual assault, and Classism

planetshelf's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The Divergent series was built on such an interesting concept and was written well. Veronica Roth is a talented author and has published some of my favorite stories.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, War, Blood, Bullying, Confinement, Body shaming, Genocide, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Alcohol, Medical content, Police brutality, Vomit, and Child death

Minor: Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts

joan_salder's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It has been a long time since I read a book I would love so much. Fantasy, dystopian, it's all so welcoming. The world created might be dangerous, but the way the author writes, makes me feel like I would have given up everything to be in that place. Not only the world created is stupendous, but the characters are so lovable that I'd do anything to replace someone from the book (not people like Peter though).  The aura, the longing for something romantic, the ecstatic feeling when something goes in Tris's or Four's favor and the emotional hurt when someone good dies out of bravery or because of that Jeanine is just so overwhelming that I could not just keep it down and read for hours not thinking about anything, but the book. This book was just PERFECT!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Suicide, Physical abuse, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Self harm, Sexism, War, Violence, Toxic friendship, Murder, Misogyny, Hate crime, Death of parent, Death, Body shaming, Gun violence, Cursing, Bullying, and Blood

my3bb8's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Suicide, Violence, Medical content, Bullying, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, and Blood

Moderate: Alcohol and Confinement

Minor: Child abuse, Death of parent, and Miscarriage

cdt96's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Divergent is a great YA dystopian book, the characters and plot build into a need for answers. Roth does a great job of keeping the reader engaged. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Violence, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Child death