WARNING: This blog post contains moderate spoilers for both Divergent and Insurgent. Read at your own risk!
The YA literary world has spend months raving about Divergent and Insurgent, the first two books in a trilogy by Veronica Roth, but
(as usual) it has taken me a while to catch up. I have always been a fan of the
dystopian genre (yes, entertainment blogs, dystopian novels did exist before The Hunger Games), so naturally I was
attracted to the story that Divergent
presented; a future in which a city has split its members into five factions,
each valuing a different quality. Like many others, I fell in love with the
beautifully flawed character of Tris, and was drawn into her adventure. I
purchased both books on my new Kindle (don't worry, I will NEVER give up on
physical books) and both were finished within three days of starting them. I've
really missed devouring a book like that, and I quite forgot how awesome it
felt. I think that I've become a bit jaded, however, when it comes to YA
series. I fell in love with The Hunger
Games and Catching Fire, but like
many other fans, Mockingjay
disappointed me. I thought that the reason I disliked it was all of the action,
as I am more interested in character and emotion than action. It is for this
reason that I delayed reading Insurgent
for a while after I finished Divergent,
even though I loved it. The parts of Divergent
that made me love the book were the scenes of Tris being initiated into
Dauntless. I liked the middle of the book much more than the end, although it
was very exciting and a good release of the tension that had been building
(writing-wise, I am not advocating mind control or anything). I was scared that
Insurgent would become like Mockingjay, character development and
emotional attachment left behind for more action. I am so happy that this was
not the case in Insurgent. Oddly,
reading it helped me realize why Mockingjay
fell flat for me: the pacing was very, very wrong. The first half of the book
takes place in District 13 and is slow and does
focus on character, but the second half of the book is action packed and
doesn't stop for breath once. Insurgent,
however, paces itself perfectly. The action sequences are interspersed throughout
the book, with slow, almost rhythmic character-driven scenes in-between. It
feels more like a natural story; not everything happens at once.
Tris Prior has got to be one of my favorite literary
characters to date, right up there with Hermione Granger and Elizabeth Bennet.
What can I say? I love strong females. But Tris is more than that (as are those
other ladies, but this blog post is about Divergent.
Sorry girls! Maybe next time!). I love Tris because she is flawed, because she
is real. In a world where everyone is boiled down into one basic personality
trait, Tris has three. She says herself that she has always felt torn, like she
belongs in Abnegation, but she doesn't. She feels the same way about Dauntless
when she is an initiate, and she can even see Erudite traits in herself. This
is attributed to the fact that she is Divergent, that she is not made to fit
into the holes that her society created, but her character goes beyond that. Tris
makes several mistakes throughout the books, some of which weigh on her
conscious greatly. She is not an extremely likable character at the beginning,
especially when she betrays her family to transfer to a new faction, which
ignites the reader's sense of loyalty. In our society, we expect people to be
loyal to their family, so we expect the same of Tris. But in her society, it is
"faction before blood", a phrase that is repeated over and over
again. Even Tris has a hard time getting that through her brain, especially
with the betrayal of Caleb in Insurgent.
But time and time again, we see familial loyalties crossing faction lines (Will
and Cara, Christina and Cara after Will's death), and even loyalties to former
factions (Tris's mom, Eric). Clearly, the Divergent aren't the only ones who
feel torn.
To me, the factions are the most interesting part of the
books. Look at the two most opposite factions, Dauntless and Abnegation, and
compare their traits. Bravery and selflessness. Often linked, no? But these
factions take their defining quality to the extreme, making the almost the
complete opposite. Truth and knowledge often go hand-in-hand as well, but
Candor and Erudite are probably more similar than they would like to believe.
And then there's Amity, always off to the side, never wanting to get involved. Insurgent did an excellent job of
getting us into the minds (and, if you are being literal, headquarters) of each
of the five factions. It made us understand the driving forces behind this
society, just before it brought the entire ideology crumbling down. I am in a
love-hate relationship with cliffhangers. As a reader, they infuriate me, but
as a writer, I love the opportunity they bring. This particular cliffhanger was
an interesting one. It didn't exactly leave our heroes in peril, but it changed
their entire worldview and their entire world. I am really interested to see
where Veronica Roth takes this, but in the meantime, I will count down the days
until October 22, 2013. And maybe do a few re-reads... just for good measure.
