Divergent

At the request of my sister, Julia (see her blog at couverturetocopertina.blogspot.ca), I recently read the popular book Divergent, by Veronica Roth. Set in a future world (one that is strikingly similar to our present one), Divergent takes place in a city where the people are divided into five different factions; Amity, Erudite, Dauntless, Abnegation, and Candor, which house the peaceful, the intelligent, the brave, the selfless, and the honest, respectively. When a child turns sixteen, they take a test to determine what faction they are best suited to, and the next day they choose which faction they want to train to get into.
However, our protagonist, Tris, has a bit of a problem when determining what faction she belongs to. She finds out that she is suited equally to no less then three of the five factions. This means she is called "Divergent," which she is told is dangerous to be.
Okay, now I'm going to cut short my summary, and ask you this question that I was definitely asking at that point; so what if she could be in any of three factions? What does that matter? How is being Divergent dangerous? These were questions that got me interested in the book. However, I soon found myself annoyed whenever the subject of Tris being divergent came up. Why? Because Tris just wouldn't be quiet about it! Seriously, Tris kept blabbing about having dreams of being divergent, about thinking the word was plastered on her forehead, on and on, even when she didn't know why it was dangerous. Seriously, Veronica, WE GET THAT SHE'S DIVERGENT!
And now back to Tris. She was brave, resourceful and hardworking, as a protagonist should be... but she was mean. She rejected some guy one day, and the next day, he went and killed himself. Sure, it was probably the brutal dauntless training camp they were in wearing him down and it wasn't really her fault. And yet, you'd think that maybe she'd feel at least a little guilt. Basically, the extent of her remorse was an 'oh. whoops. Maybe I should've been nicer.' And we never heard about the incident again.
But seriously, besides though two little incidents the book was actually very good.  I will call this book predictable, although my sister basically told me everything about it when she read the book (are you reading this sis?), so maybe I can't say that truthfully. So in the end, I have a well written, if slightly predictable, book with only a few flaws. Seven out of ten stars.

-Mark