I have recently begun re-reading the Divergent series by Veronica Roth. I’ve read the series in the past and greatly enjoyed it and I’ve already re-read the first two books, Divergent and Insurgent. And they’re pretty good, so I’m surprised at the amount of criticism the series has gotten. And while I wouldn’t dare try to defend Allegiant both because it introduces plot holes and because I’m still rereading it for the first time in a year or two, I will maintain my opinion that the first two books are great! Skip to the last paragraph to avoid spoilers for both Divergent and Insurgent. You have been warned! 😁

Divergent and Insurgent follow a teenage girl named Beatrice (Tris) Prior and her “adventures” in Chicago, now fenced off from the rest of the unknown world. The city of Chicago is now set up in a system of factions, Abnegation, Erudite, Dauntless, Candor, and Amity; each with their own beliefs, and their respective traits.

Beatrice was born Abnegation, but at the annual choosing ceremony, she leaves Abnegation to join Dauntless, where the members are brave, wild, and free. After making her way through the Dauntless initiation, and making friends along the way; her instructor Tobias (Four) Eaton, and two fellow transfers Will, an ex-Erudite; and Christina, an ex-Candor; tragedy strikes! The Erudite launch an attack on Abnegation, using the Dauntless as their weapon, having gained control of the entire faction using a simulation serum, and everyone but Tris and Tobias are under control. They only managed to remain self-aware due to a trait called “Divergence” (Get the name of the book now?), and shut it down, but their too late, Tris’ parents are killed, the majority of Abnegation is wiped out, and Tris is forced to kill Will as he was going to shoot her had she not acted. Tris, Tobias, a fellow Dauntless transfer Peter (that douchebag), and Tris’ brother Caleb (that treacherous snake, what? I said there would be spoilers didn’t I?) are on the run from Erudite, and after being attacked at Amity, Tris and Tobias proceed to meet up with the loyal Dauntless at the Candor headquarters, leave to retake their own headquarters, and conspire with the factonless (those who failed the initiation for the factions,) to invade and defeat Erudite.

That sounds like a great story right? Well if it doesn’t go read the books, they tell it better than me😁! So why do people dislike this book? Well it seems that one of the main issues people have with this book, isn’t really with this book, it’s that it came out after the famous Hunger Games triolgy’s success, so this series was seen as just an inferior copy to the Hunger Games trilogy, and that’s just not true. Granted I have no idea if the author was trying to mimic the success of the Hunger Games trilogy, but you can’t call it a copy, Divergent and it’s follow-up books are their own unique story, and it’s a very entertaining one at that. Honestly the problems only really arise at Alligiant, which I get, it introduces many plot holes and logical errors, but I’m not going to delve into, because it would purely be off memory, and thus not that accurate. This has been a fun review, all that’s left now is to give this series an arbitrary ranking based of my own opinions! Overall I would give Divergent a 7/10, Insurgent a 8/10, and off memory Alligiant a 5/10, (we’ll see what I think when I’m done re-reading it!) For a series average of 6.5/10!

(P.S. My favorite faction would be Erudite, even though I hate some of the villains in there!)