She Was All Five

By Sana S.

Take a trip in a time machine to a future where the only thing that evolved was drugs and government. Veronica Roth is an author that keeps you wondering who will die next. Her book, Divergent, is a story that shows you what would happen if we as a nation keep using social classes or separate people by what they do like in stereotypical high schools (the jocks, the nerds, the rockers, etc.

Enter a city that is sectioned off from the rest of the world and is, too the residents of the area, as big as modern day Chicago. The catch is, those residents think they are the only humans left. The residents of the future Chicago establish a system where children, at the age of 16, take an aptitude test to decide where they belong out of the five sectors, called factions, that divide the city. There is erudite, for the exceptionally smart. There is amity for the peaceful and abnegation for the selfless. Lastly, there is candor for the honest, and dauntless for the brave. The test can also give you another result no one knows about, Divergent. Being divergent having more than one of those qualities. The main character, Beatrice, is a 16 year old girl who goes to take the test, unaware of the fact that her life is about to go out of control.

The writing of Veronica Roth will, at often times, make you feel confused. However, that confusion is completely normal since you get new information only when the main character hears it, which is to make you feel as if you were part of the story and has you trying to put the clues together until the story works itself out in the end. His character development was very good although scenery descriptions were vague. There are many details in this book that didn't seem to be described enough including the absence of a name for the city and the life of the factionless.

This was my first time coming across the work of Ms. Roth and was glad to find two more books after this one making Divergent part of a trilogy. As I happily find out what's in store for Beatrice and her allies, you should start to travel through this city and find what faction you belong to… Who knows, you might even say I was all five.

Divergent, by Veronica Roth, HarperCollins, 2011, 487 pages