I know that I am very late to the party but I finally chose Divergent from my TBR mountain. Having finished it now, I can't believe that I waited so long to read it. The story was truly one I couldn't put down. I was immediately engaged by the well-drawn character of Beatrice as she agonizes over which faction she will join when she turns sixteen. Her path isn't clear and is really dangerous since she was not a member of one of the five factions but something else—Divergent.She chooses to leave her faction of Abnegation (selflessness) and join Dauntless (courage). She soon learns that joining won't be easy especially when hiding her differences. Somehow courage has been corrupted into cruelty and she has a struggle to survive. She is small and untrained and without allies among her fellow initiates. But she finds friends and she has the support of her trainer Four to help her survive the actions of some of her bullying fellow initiates. While she didn't know who Four was before he became a member of Dauntless, clues given earlier in the story had me convinced, correctly, that I knew who he was. I enjoyed watching them begin a romance that wasn't the least bit sweet and was one more secret that they had to keep. The descriptions of the training and the trials and the activities of the Dauntless were fascinating. I decided right away that wouldn't be the faction for me. Jumping off seven story buildings and jumping aboard moving trains will never be on my To Do list!Tris rather quickly sees the corruption that is invading Dauntless and then learns that they are part of a conspiracy with Erudite to seize control of the government from her old faction Abnegation. She finds unexpected allies when she has to fight to stop this very bloody revolution from succeeding. One especially creepy character in the story was the head of the Erudite faction who was the main villain. Tris sees her as more machine than maniac. She sees a problem and finds a way to solve it not counting the lives lost as having any importance.This was an excellent story filled with excitement, adventure, and love. I can't wait to read INSURGENT which just happens to be waiting on my Kindle.
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