City News
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Review by Kaydence
Veronica Roth’s Divergent is the first in a trilogy about a futuristic Chicago that is split into five
factions Abnegation, Candor, Amity, Dauntless, and Erudite. It follows Beatrice Prior, a sixteen
year old girl who’s time it is to choose if she wants to stay with her family in Abnegation or
switch to another faction.
The book starts with Beatrice getting her haircut by her mother. She is worried about her
aptitude test. The test tells her what faction she should choose. After the test she will choose
which faction she wants to go to. She wants to join Dauntless, the faction about bravery. She
doesn’t know what to do. She takes her aptitude test, which is a simulation where her choices
throughout determine what faction is best. When she is done her test administrator tells her that
she is Divergent. This means that she is compatible for multiple factions. The administrator says
not to tell anyone ever. At dinner Beatrice had to hide her conflicted feelings.
At the choosing ceremony Beatrice’s brother chooses Erudite. With some hesitation she
chooses Dauntless. She jumps on a train and meets Christina and Will. A boy named Peter
makes fun of her for being Abnegation. To show him up she jumps into the Pit, first. The Pit is
how newcomers get into the Dauntless headquarters. The next day Eric, the lead trainer, tells
the initiates that there are three stages to the training process. If they pass each stage then they
become Dauntless, if they don’t they become factionless.
Beatrice decides to go by Tris because she feels it sounds more Dauntless and less
Abnegation. She does well during the first day of training, shooting guns at targets. The next
day is hand to hand combat. When Christiana concedes her opponent Eric makes her hang
over a chasm in the Pit for five minutes as punishment. Tris has to go against Peter, he beats
her badly and she ends up in the infirmary. She starts doubting her choice. Late that night Eric
and Four, another trainer, take them to play a game of capture the flag. Tris and Four climb a
ferris wheel to see where the other teams flag is. Tris starts having feelings for Four. She is able
to figure out where the flag is and leads them to victory. The next day they have to practice knife
throwing.
On visiting day Tris is comforted by her mother’s company she also realizes her mother must
have come from Dauntless. Later the rankings from stage one are revealed and Tris places
sixth. Edward, who placed first, is stabbed in the eye. Tris suspects that Peter, who placed
second, did it out of jealousy.
The second stage of training is going into a simulation filled with terrifying situations and seeing
how fast the initiates can get through them. Tris does really well and is able to finish her
simulation very fast. Four realizes she is Divergent and tells her not to tell anyone. She goes to
talk to Tori, her aptitude test administrator, about being Divergent. Tori tells Tris that her brother
was killed when the government found out that he was Divergent. Since she can manipulate the
simulations she ranks first for stage two. Peter gets mad and attacks her one night with the help
of two other initiates, Drew and Al. They almost drop her over the chasm until Four shows up
and rescues her. He takes her back to his room to recover and they become closer. Al is so
upset with himself about what he did that he jumps into the chasm. While venting to Four about
Dauntless priorities he tells her that she is being watched.
The third stage is going into a simulation filled with each person’s worst fears. Four takes Tris
into his own simulation of his fears. There she learns that his name is four because he only has
four fears and that his real name is Tobias Eaton. He is Marcus Eaton’s son, Marcus works with
Tris’s dad. Marcus was accused of beating Tobias and after seeing his fear simulation Tris knew
it was true. After the simulation Tris and Tobias kiss. The next day Tobias ignores Tris making
her upset. During the practice simulation Tris panics. Tobias rebukes her and she slaps him.
She runs away going to visit her brother in Erudite. He shows loyalty to Erudite which angers
Tris since they keep accruing Abnegation horrible things. She is taken by two men to Jeanine,
Erudite leader, and she interrogates Tris about her simulation results. Tris has to lie and cover
up her Divergence.
When she gets back to Dauntless Eric threatens Tris with punishment for leaving. Tobias says
she was just heartbroken because he rejected her. Later he takes her into the city and shows
her that Erudite lights are still on, a major violation. He tells her that he found out that Erudite
was planning a war against Abnegation but isn’t sure how Dauntless is involved.
Tris has to do her final test. She has to do her actual fear simulation. It is watched by everybody
so she has to think like a Dauntless not a Divergent. Eric congratulates her for doing so well and
informs everyone that a tracking device has to be injected in them. She is suspicious but goes
along with it. Later she realizes the tracker devices are going to be used to control the
Dauntless. She isn’t able to tell Tobias in time and that night she wakes up and sees everyone
in a trance. She is Divergent so the serum didn’t work on her but she just follows everyone.
They all get on a train and she sees that Tobias is also awake and realizes he is Divergent as
well. When they get to Abnegation the Dauntless start shooting everyone in sight. Tris stops
Eric from shooting Tobias and they are both taken to Jeanine, who tells them her plot to take
over the government. Tobias is injected with a serum that makes him attack Tris and she is
knocked unconscious.
She wakes up in a glass box filling with water like in her simulation. Her mom comes in and
saves her and shortly after their escape her mom is shot. Tris finds her father and brother hiding
with other Abnegation members, along with Marcus. They go to Dauntless headquarters to get
to the control room. Tris convinces Peter to help them get into the room. On their way there
Tris’s dad is also shot. When she gets to the control room Tobias is still under the influence of
the serum. They fight and before he shoots her she talks him out of the serum. He stops the
commuter program and takes the hard drive. They meet up with Marcus and Caleb, Tris’s
brother, on a train to Amity. Tris notices Marcus is Marcus is interested in the harddrive and
wonders what will happen next.
Roth’s storyline was very original and intriguing. This book was really interesting and had a lot of
unexpected turns to the plot. The characters were great and the plot was great. When I was
done I couldn’t wait to see what happened next.
One thing I didn’t like was Tris’s brother. They never explained why he chose Erudite and what
his role in the war was. He helps them fight against them but it’s never clear what he did while
the war was being planned. I wish that had been cleared up more.
Overall it was an exciting book filled with action and adventure. I give this book a 9/10 for its
incredible characters and plot. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a good
utopian storyline.