Divergent By Veronica Roth

Normally I would not rate a movie with a book I have read.  Inevitably the book will always be better then the movie.  This particular book, Divergent by Veronica Roth, was identical to the movie.  Let me say first, I read the book years before I saw the movie.  I loved it. It took some goading by some 7th grade students before I read the book due to its science fiction label.  I thought of Spock and Luke Skywalker who immediately turned me away from science fiction.  However, Roth does something amazing with her female protagonist to surprise me.  By investing the reader in a character emotionally, she creates Beatrice, or Tris as she comes to be known, a girl who has mental and physical strength and is not afraid to go for what she wants.  Tris becomes a dystopian heroine.  Born into the Abnegation Faction, Tris and her brother must choose which faction they will live out their life serving.  By not choosing their parents' faction, they risk never speaking to their family again.  Once factions are chosen, they are expected to go through the initiation period of the faction.  If they fail during the initiation period, they will become factionless and live on the edge of the city, similar to the homeless people of our society.  The factions, Dauntless, Abnegation, Erudite, Amity, and Candor become the lives of the people.  However with governmental unrest and friction between the factions, the novel has complex plot and edgy action.  The book is the first in the trilogy followed by Insurgent (spoiler alert) and Allegiant.  Although I loved, loved, loved, the first book, I have no desire to read the second or third.  I feel that no book could reach the invested interest this one did.  Maybe before the next movie is released, I will read the book.  Maybe.