Let me start this review by simply stating...
*Screams at top of lungs and flails around crazily*Okay. Now that that is out of the way... maybe, there's a good chance I will have to randomly pause for another such freak out moment... I can begin.
I have put off reading Divergent since I first heard about it in 2011. 2011 was when I was first rediscovering my bookworm habits, but I was stuck on vampires and angels and all things paranormal. I would not stray and I just was NOT a fan of the whole dystopian scene... AT ALL. I'm honestly still not. BUT I kept seeing all my favorite bloggers just fly off the handle about this book. I got curious and attempted to pick it up... I couldn't get into it. Then Insurgent released, the mania began again and I picked up The Hunger Games and loved it, SO I tried once more and another no go. Then I hear movie rumors and Allegiant releases... I decide on the audiobook. I AM AN IDIOT! I should not have waited so long. I should have made myself keep going when I first checked it out of the library. I bought the Kindle version with it's Audible counterpart and holy penguins Batman! This book... *deeps breathes* I'm trying to keep comporsure here...
We meet Beatrice getting ready for the aptitude test that will help her decide on choosing a faction on what they call Choosing Day. She intorduces us to the factions and what the test is, then we follow her through her testing and find out that she is a little different... Beatrice is what they call Divergent. She's told that this is dangerous and keep it to herself and now she is still just as lost about which faction to choose. But oh does she choose... Dauntless. We follow Beatrice... now Tris... through her arrival at the dauntless compund and the beginning of her Intitiation where we meet the ever mysterious and swoon-worthy Four. We follow Tris on a truly MIND BLOWING journey through Dauntless Initiation. It is crazy! We also get to see something brew between Tris and Four. They are all led to believe that their world is controlled and peaceful, but they learn it is not what it seems and things get stirred up. Things go crazy! And so ends my summary because I will probably give the whole thing away. I really have not gotten my thoughts together after this one.
There are SO MANY AMAZING characters! So Many! From the beginning something about Tris's mother drew me to her. I really liked her and thought for as little as was shared that she would end up having a lot of depth and being more than what she seemed. I think she is one of the best mom characters I have read honestly. Her Dad I was kind of meh about until the end and I ended up with a massive respect for the man. Her brother Caleb was in the same boat as their mother. I really grew to like him. NOw for Initiates. I LOVED Christina! Awesome character. She was spunky and just straight-forward. And Will... be still my beating heart. He just seemed like such a great guy! He seemed to have the whole wholesome guy thing down and was sweet. Smart. Al... I'm still not sure about. Peter, Molly, Drew... I'd love to strangle. Uriah... another moment where my heart swoons. I freaking LOVE Uriah... I just... gah! I loved him. Then of course... Tris. Tris takes my top spot for best heroine hands down. There is no question in my mind. I love a lot of characters and have so many favorites and say "OMG this one is so much better than them all", but no... Tris is it. She is a badass. She has so much depth as a character. We see her struggle with figuring out who she is and it is realistic. She felt truly real. And of course... Four. *Dies*..... Four is... this one is hard for me because I have had the same #1 book boyfriend for YEARS... Patch. Four... he took Patch. Easily. This rocks my world... shakes it to it's core. Four is one of the best males charcters I have EVER read. His personality, he's deep, he's just everything. The bad guys... Veronica Roth can write a bad guy!
The world building in this book... normally I don't go too much into the world building, but the world Roth creates is probably the best I have read. Especially in the dystopian genre. She created a very realistic world. It was very easy to fall into and picture. She was detailed and organized about her world building and it all made sense. It was dark and beautiful all in one. She took the notion of everyone just wanting to fit in somewhere and ran with it. She molded an amazing world. She took what was real and just... futurized it. (I don't know if that's a word)... She took Chicago and technology and aged it in a way that could work... that could very well happen. I loved it. I also loved the fact that Veronica Roth didn't take the nice road. She was ballsy and brave... she took no prisoners and even though I bawled and threw a temper tantrum I loved what she did. It was a hard pill to swallow too.
Since I listened to the book I wanted to make note of the narrator, Emma Galvin. I really liked her. She really fit Tris's character voice wise. She has a nice voice and she reads very well. She put her emotions into it and that really showed in her reading. She did an amazing job and I will be listening to more of her.
So... this book blew my mind on so many levels. As I said above, I've had gobs of heroines I've loved or annoyed the ever loving crap out of me... but Tris I truly loved all the way around. She takes my top spot easily and she is going to be a hard one to beat. Four... takes my number one book boyfriend and he is passing the one I have had for YEARS! I read Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush, Hush when it was first released... I have loved Patch that long and so much that I have not been able to bring myself to read the last book in that series (though I want to badly) because I am seriously too scared of how Becca ends it. No male character has ever beat Patch... come close... but never. Four does. Four is... wow. I sincerely loved this book and this series may very well slide into my top spot and hold on for a long time. I still cannot believe I waited this long. Veronica Roth took my emotions on the craziest rollercoaster ride of my life for sure. This was a book that absorbed you and held you. I give this one an A+ and so much more.
Make note... I will be reviewing the movie!
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