Book Review: Divergent By Veronica Roth

About a month or two ago I was browsing Etsy for literary-inspired creations, and I stumbled upon The Green Forrest. Among the books I recognized as the inspirations behind several pieces of jewelry in the shop, I also found some that were unfamiliar to me. Namely, I found an entire section devoted to The Divergent Trilogy.

So, naturally, I had to research the books for myself. I found the first novel in the series, Divergent, through my library's e-book system. I had to wait several weeks on the waiting list to get it, but the wait was well worth it.

I'm going to avoid spoiling the book here, but I'll just give you the basics so you will be enticed to read it for yourselves (I hope).

A few disclaimers before we begin:

- Nobody paid me to read this book. I was not given a copy of the book by anyone else, including the publisher. I chose to read it on my own and the opinions I will express in this review are also my own.
- I am a HUGE fan of dystopian literature, particularly of the Young Adult genre. You should know this in advance because I am predisposed to like books like Divergent. If you are not similarly predisposed then you might find my review a bit biased or over-enthusiastic.

Anyway, let's move on to the actual book, shall we?

The Basic Plot

Divergent is a dystopian novel, meaning that the setting takes place in a fictional future where war has torn apart the world and the leaders of the society have taken measures (sometimes drastic ones) to stop that from happening again. In their pursuit of a Utopia they end up creating a system that fails in some way when things go horribly wrong.
In this future version of the United States (Chicago, to be exact), the people who live in the city all belong to one of five factions. The idea is that if human nature's propensity for evil is what creates wars, then the only way to eliminate war is to put a huge emphasis on the more positive characteristics in the human personality. Each faction chooses one main emphasis: Amity for kindness, Erudite for intelligence, Candor for honesty, Abnegation for selflessness and Dauntless for courage. The people inside those factions have to behave a certain way and strive to always emphasize that one important trait in their lives and in their behavior.
At the age of 16, children born into a faction must take a test to determine their aptitude for a particular faction, which may or may not be their own. Then they choose the faction they want to join as an adult; choosing a faction other than the one they are born into means leaving their family behind forever, so it is rarely done (but it does happen).
The main character in the novel takes her aptitude test and finds out that she doesn't have an aptitude for one faction only; rather, she's Divergent, meaning she shows strengths in a variety of areas. This, she soon discovers, is a dangerous label to own, so she must hide her Divergence as she chooses a faction for herself.

My Reaction

I really loved this book. I enjoyed watching Beatrice, the protagonist, as she struggled to choose a faction and be true to herself. I admired her courage as she pursued initiation into her faction and also as she took the steps to dismantle the corrupt government toward the end. There's a nice bit of romance in the novel while still retaining a strong female protagonist, and the plot twisted often enough to keep me guessing and to keep me biting my nails. If you enjoyed novels like The Hunger Games, Uglies or Incarceron then I highly recommend the Divergent Trilogy as well.
The second novel in the trilogy, Insurgent, comes out in May. I can't wait to read it!

Do you have any other dystopian literature to recommend? I'd love to know about it! Leave me a comment and tell me all about it.

Drive-By Book Review: Incarceron and Sapphique by Catherine Fisher

My friend Steph recently sent me a box full of books to read (a great little swap we've arranged between the two of us), and in it was Incarceron by Catherine Fisher. I devoured that one pretty quickly so she brought me the sequel the next time she saw me - Sapphique.

If you know my reading preferences at all, you won't be remotely surprised that I was instantly intrigued by the premise of Incarceron - it's a Young Adult novel set in a dystopian future. In other words, it's right up my alley!

With Incarceron, Catherine Fisher grabs you right from the start and sucks you into her story and her characters. Immediately you meet Finn, a prisoner; eventually the story unfolds to reveal what's going on in Finn's world and Outside the prison.

Essentially, Incarceron is set in a fictional future where we have destroyed our planet with war. As a solution to this a king has created a system where everyone lives in a sort of historical re-enactment. Trapped by the protocol of the past the people are left without sufficient technology and freedom, therefore they aren't able to destroy the earth or each other again.

Oh, and as an added bonus, they stuck all the criminals in a living, breathing prison known as Incarceron. Built to be a Utopia where all the undesirables of society can start over and rebuild their lives, Incarceron is instead a Hell for its inhabitants. It is full of mysteries and monsters and humans with darkness inside their hearts. Finn is trapped in this world, but somehow he senses it isn't where he belongs.

Anyway, eventually Finn contacts Claudia, a girl who lives Outside as the daughter of Incarceron's Warden. Together they form a plan to free Finn from Incarceron and overthrow the dictatorial leadership of the Realm where Claudia lives. But, of course, they also unleash an awful lot of chaos and danger.

Sapphique finishes the story, revealing what happens to Finn and Claudia as they find themselves holding onto way more than they can handle in terms of plot twists. In Sapphique we learn more about the history of Incarceron and the Realm and the people who made it what it is. We also learn that nothing is as it seems, Inside or Out.

I'd give this series 3 out of 4 stars. It was very compelling in the first novel, slightly less so in the second but it still kept me turning pages, wanting to know what would happen in the end. I will say, too, that I never would have predicted how it turned out, and that's always a good thing!

Book Review: Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

So, I haven't been reading much lately, mostly because my Nook is currently misbehaving and I need to get it repaired or replaced. In the meantime, however, my friend Steph loaned me a few books to read, which was awesome of her! One of those books was Catherine Fisher's Incarceron.

Image from Amazon.com

If you know me and my reading preferences then you know that I love dystopian literature. I guess it's kind of a weird thing to love, when you think about it. I enjoy reading books about what could happen in the future if things go horribly wrong. Ha! Anyway, Incarceron is a dystopian novel so you should know I loved it before I even read the first page.

Synopsis
Incarceron introduces us first to Finn, a boy trapped inside a living, breathing prison. The prison is like a giant society all its own, housing countless prisoners in a variety of landscapes. It has metal forests, dark tombs, and giant caverns. It's full of bullies and heroes, just like life on the outside. Except that very few in the prison even believe in the idea of Outside, because no one has ever been there.

Next we meet Claudia, a girl who lives on the Outside. She is the prison warden's daughter, and she's trapped in her own kind of prison. She lives in a futuristic version of Earth where a long-since-dead dictator decided to re-create the past in order to save the future. Everyone lives in a sort of a play, pretending that they are from an era before technology and modern conveniences. The ruling class take their liberties with this situation and they keep everyone else in line through strict punishments. Meanwhile, very few people ever even think about Incarceron or the people inside it.

In this situation, Incarceron was built as a way to rid the world of all the evil-doers at one time. The rulers who built Incarceron sent all the criminals away to live there, along with several of the best and brightest people from that generation. The idea was to create a Utopia inside the prison, a perfect society with no problems. They would always be comfortable, always have food and shelter, and never have any disease or crime. Then the rest of society would move ahead by living in the past.

As the reader soon discovers, nothing ever works out the way you plan it. When Finn and Claudia connect with one another through a secret key, they will put in motion events that can change the future for everyone.

Review
Ok, enough teasers. I'm hoping I've enticed you to read this book, all my ramblings aside. They're making it into a movie, but that won't be out for another year and a half so in the meantime you've got plenty of time to read the book. The plot sucks you in from the very beginning and doesn't let you go until the very end. Even after reading it I'm left wanting more, and patiently waiting for Steph to send me the sequel, Sapphique. In the meantime, I'll have to busy myself with the creation of some Incarceron colorways for my shop, I suppose!

So, what have you been reading lately? Any recommendations for me?