Veronica Roth, Katherine Tegen Books, 2012
It's been a while since my last reading in January maybe?. Still doing read but I just pick articles and a looot of korean drama synopsis. Hwahaha...it's addicting, you know? It's the same as reading serial, plus it has screencaps from the drama. Now since there is no interesting drama to be fan of ^^, I decide going back to old habit. Beside, I have English challenge this year...minimal 7 english books, which is still no progress -it's Maaay *screaming. For the first turn I take Divergent. It's because of the movie, of course. Wanna read it before watching. Let's check the review...
Another dystopian novel...as usual it's always about the wold that divided into several faction. It consists of Abnegation -whose valuing selflessness-, Candor -valuing honesty-, Erudite -valuing cleverness-, Dauntless -valuing bravery- and Amity -valuing love/caring, I forgot this one. Anyway, our heroine is Beatrice or Tris. She comes from Abnegation, but she always feel not selfless enough being an Abnegation. There is a tradition that every child from all faction can choose to stay in their current faction or switch to other when they are 16. Switching to other faction sometimes means cut the tie from family because faction comes first than blood. From the test before the ceremony, Beatrice know the test result can't tell exactly what faction she should belong to. She is divergent and the examiner tells her not to tell anybody her result. Then she choose Dauntless while his brother choose Erudite, both make their father dissapointed. In Dauntless, Tris have to pass several tests before she can be the member officially. During the training, she found that Dauntless is no longer valuing bravery but more to cruelty. The instructor of the training named Four is later known being a Divergent too. She also learns being Divergent means death in Dauntless. When her mom visiting, mom asks her to find her brother in Erudite and tell him for investigating about simulation serum. It seem something really bad is happening in their country...
Bah...it should be easier writing review in English since I read English, but it's not hehe... Okay, I feel too much things revealed in the first book. The pace is quite fast. Suddenly the heroine got boyfriend and there is no second lead... make me feel something missing :D. The character of Tris is typical heroine, stone-headed, bold and determined. On the other side, Four is somehow potrayed less stronger than her, not physically but mentally. It's not how the alpha male should be, right? Reading this novel also gave me a little bit of Harry Potter -the all faction and ceremony things-, a glimpse of The Hunger Games -in part of the deadly training-, and a sparkle of Vampire Academy -falling in love with instructor, but still in Divergent way. I enjoy this novel even this don't make me wanna jump to the second book right after like with The Hunger Games.
Addition: Free Four
I found this when I was googling about Divergent. Since this only one chapter, I just put it in here. Free Four tells about a part of Divergent story from Four's point of view. The part being told is the blade throwing part, when Tris is forced to take Al's place to be the target because she defends for him. Then Nick, the cruel leader of Dauntless, asks Four to throw the knife. It then revealed that Four is actually struggling the strategy to cover his interest to Tris, of which Nick is suspicious about. It's always nice reading the story from both sides. I felt that way reading Flipped. Anyway, according to writer's blog, there will be five short stories of Four. Two of it (Free Four and The Transfer -I haven't read this) have been released. The rest will come out this year, 2014, and they will make it in one book. Yaaay...Four-mania must be thrilling (I'm not included^^).
