Review of Divergent (2014) by Steven V — 12 Sep 2015

Unlike Hunger Games, Twilight, or Harry Potter, each with a grown woman's interpretion of what it must be like to be a young adult, Divergent was made by a very young college student. By being close in actual age to her character, Tris, she accurately portrays the nuances of Tris' friendship and subtle rivalry with Christina. With Tris' deep crush on Four, she mixes the insecurity of a young girl not feeling pretty enough with the believable intensity of a teenager barely holding back her hormones. Tris is not as skilled with weaponry nor as beautiful as Hunger Games' Catniss, who effortlessly had Peter and Gale and most of her world fascinated with her, so she has to struggle more.

Likewise, compared to the immediately striking, more captivating, full-bodied, immersive Hunger Games, Divergent is the plainer little sister, who instead relies on a slow burn to captivate for her "first rodeo." Fully embracing the "I want to take it slow" philosophy, her story takes an almost maddeningly amount time on relationship building. While going from coyly dropping plot points to sudden full throttle hot action almost at the end was an abrupt shift, I have to give her some respect for being so reserved as long as she did on her debut. It was an impossible feat it for Veronica Roth, at her age, to pull off an international sensation like Divergent better than many professionals working their entire lifes could ever do, so I am really impressed with this "first jumper.".

By highlighting the importance of "belonging" to the main character, with adolescent events like capture the flag or joyful zip-lining, she brings a "Fault In Our Stars" lonely fragility to Divergent that accounts for her meteoric rise to stardom.

Her convincing portrayal of an ordinary girl in extraordinary circumstances rescues Divergent from it's implausible premise that a few hundred post-apocalyptic Chicagoans would have the wherewithal to build a gigantic wall and recreate Harry Potter's Hogwarts with a technological "Sorting Hat" to create a stable society suspiciously similar to the houses of Gryffindor (Dauntless), Ravenclaw (Erudite), Hufflepuff (Amity), etc. to distinguish themselves from Muggles (Factionless).