Reviews with content warning for Gore - Divergent

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Divergent by Veronica Roth

22 reviews

chloe_23's review against another edition

adventurous

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Not the best book I've ever read, but better than some. This is a decent book to read if you like "romantic" dystopian novels with cliques. There were reviews about this book saying that the romance was so strong, and that the characters were so amazing, but I do not agree very much with those statements. Though, I do like the fact that each faction is a different part of speech. I do, however, like how the faction names(Dauntless, Amity, Erudite, Abnegation, and Candor) can easily roll off the tongue and sound nice.

I honestly don't like how Tris basically hated Marcus just from being in Tobias' fear landscape, seeing as she hasn't gotten to understand or know Marcus yet.

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readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

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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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hayleyvem's review against another edition

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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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kenzie_simone789's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious relaxing sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

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jonathancreekwannabe's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark informative inspiring mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

Read for the first time when I was 13, an edit came up on my fyp and I thought I would re read again, even though now I mostly don't gravitate towards YA fiction. I regret nothing. 13 year old me had good taste.

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this_is_lee's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging reflective fast-paced

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

4.5

This book is one of the first ones I remember loving and obsessing over. I recognize that it is far from a masterpiece and that the author is problematic but I also am able to so easily fall into the world and characters that Roth created. I love the flaws we see and the amount of politics that are on display.
The Divergent series will alway bring comfort to me (except for Allegiant when needs to get thrown out.)

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planetshelf's review against another edition

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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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