Reviews with content warning for Torture - Divergent

The story and the fast pace of the writing kept me into this book. I wanted to know what happened in the end.

I am torn when it comes to the characters. While I say I didn’t love the characters, I didn’t dislike them, either. The teenage drama is something that does not appeal to me, though I do like when characters have internal struggles and grow from them. There is some of this here. I imagine that Tris’ growth will happen across the trilogy and not solely in one book.

I liked the story, but I haven’t decided yet whether to read the next book. I think what goes cross grain for me in this book is that everyone is a threat to the main character throughout most of the book. I find this kind of fear uncomfortable.

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skylar_jo_3's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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alisonfaith426's review against another edition

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adventurous tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5

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christygsp's review against another edition

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4.0

I liked it.
Interesting premise, characters and development.

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ghostisalive's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

i never actually read the divergent books when they were "popular" so to say, however after seeing the trailer for the new hunger games all i've craved is some sort of dystopian fiction that reminds me of when i was younger and this perfectly fulfilled that craving. not only did it do so but it also got me out of my reading slump.

as for the book it's self, i liked it more than i thought i would. there's so many parts where i couldn't put it down and i really like seeing the inner turmoil in characters during choosing day and the aptitude test and then following along to see the consequences of their choices. some of the things that were revealed were so unexpected which was crazy. i also enjoyed that the love story isn't a focal point but at some parts it was to the point where i almost forgot it was even a thing. but overall these are very minor flaws that did not change my mind. 5/5 from me
<3

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mermaidmommy19's review against another edition

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5.0

Stellar. I haven't read it since high school, but I think I loved it even more this time around.

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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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midnacine's review against another edition

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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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