I have spent the last couple of months going through the Divergent series. Any of you who have multiple commitments know how hard it can be to find time to read, but with the promise of review and a desire to find out what every one's draw is to this series was, I found a way to put in the time and this is the experience I had with the series.As a series it is one of the better young adult trilogies that I have read in recent past. I say this with the understanding that I previously went through the Hunger trilogy and couldn't bring myself to even finish the 3rd book. The Divergent trilogy it is a fair read and decently entertaining. The first 2 books the story comes solely from the point of view of our Heroine Tris (or Beatrice by her original name.) In the third book however, you have to get used to the book switching point of views between Tris and her boyfriend Four (Tobias). It is something that at least for me took a bit of time to get used to, seeing as how the first 2 follow a different writing pattern. The overall plot is one that you would expect after finishing the first book and comes to a climax with a fairly predictable ending.
A post-apocalyptic society that is in the process of rebuilding but seems to have a very Utopian feel. Broken up into 5 factions (Abnegation, Erudite, Dauntless, Amity, and Candor) and every 16 year old takes a test to determine what faction they should be in but then are put in front of nearly the entire community the next day to choose, deciding if they will follow what their heart tells them, their parents, or the test. Our main character ends up leaving her families faction to join one with a bit more style and danger called Dauntless. you meet an array of characters through out the induction portion of the story including who will obviously be her eventual love interest Four. Eventually the inevitable attempt of dictatorship by a character named Jeanine Matthews an Erudite woman (the inventors and scientists of their society.), who feels she has the right to take charge and rule the city as an individual rather than the congress like situation that they currently have. She uses a drug(Serum) to control the minds of the Dauntless and use them like a programmable army to eradicate the current ruling faction called Abnegation. A group so self less they only allow them selves to be selfish if it will benefit others first. the Book comes to and end with Tris and Four shutting down the program controlling everyone, taking the hard drive to contains the program its self and running off with what is instantly a mismatched bunch of characters.
The second book follows suit continuing right after the first one ends, with no more than possibly minutes that would have disappeared between them, it's like any good sequel and is simply there to get you to the next segment. we re join our rag tag team fleeing to another faction call Amity(essentially the hippies of their society.) the having to again flee for their lives and ending up with what are known as the "Faction-less". A group of people who washed out of initiation from their chosen factions. Finding in this time that Fours long lost and thought to be dead mother is the leader of the "Faction-less". they eventually make it over to Candor(the lawyers of the society. The term brutally honest doesn't begin to explain them!) where they are attacked by dauntless that are now loyal to the erudite, causing them to move on to the former abnigation housing creating an army comprised of the faction-less and whats left of the dauntless. This of course ends in a battle loosing the lives of new and old characters, new knowledge that their city was created similar to a bio-dome like project by one of Tris's ancestors and the inevitable death of Jeanine Matthews.
The third and final book in the series does what you expect it to. Wraps everything up with a fairly tidy yet somewhat bloody bow. My only true criticism I can give is as I said before the third book somewhat changes pace. Our heroes end up leaving their beloved city to find out who is really pulling the strings, loosing one of their group in the process. when they get outside the walls however they find out that people originally thought to be dead were in all actuality smuggled out of the by Tris's mother, and the place they all end up in is in some ways reminiscent of the movie "The Truman show" . This is where we get into the age old story of Have's and Have not's, and the is an all too expected failed uprising that comes to head with the eventual death of another long term character. in their time in this situation Tris finds out that he mother was a plant to help slowly move all of the Divergent people out of the cent to the research facility before they can be killed by the ruling factors involved and it is in this that you find that the city was simply created to breed and cultivate Divergents.
The series ends with the way you either hope or expect it to with possibly a small twist here and there. I won't give away the ending and you maybe thinking that I have already spoiled the series, but trust me when I say there is so much I left out and it will keep you reading till the end. The author has since released a book which is a series of shorts of the divergent stories from Four's point of view. Personally I would be more interested in reading these if she hadn't put his perspective throughout the entire third book. Too much is given away almost too quickly by doing this and you almost come to expect what happens. I personally give the series a 3.7 out of 5. I would recommend it to anyone from teen on up who enjoys a good action love story and looking for a good young adult style series to get into. But take this for what it is. My opinion, my point of view and read the series your self and let me know what you think. so to end this please have a read, have some fun and in the end "Don't forget to be a fan!!"
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