Well, I’m not sure what to say about this. It was fine while it lasted but I’m not sure I’ll be continuing (I thought that even before I read the reviews on Amazon).

The idea is great. In a future dystopian world, Chicago population is divided into 5 factions that are all supposed to live a utopian life but it’s not utopian as is soon rather obvious. From the people who are unlucky to be factionless, to the fact that not all who select one of the factions will actually become its members, to the point where most factions resent Abnegation leadership.

I couldn’t help but be a bit disappointed with the fact that characterization is a bit lacking (also, no one packs so much muscles in 2 weeks no matter what they do) and we lack some crucial information (not even a hint to what happened to the world outside Chicago?! – that is just one thing), to the fact that what happens to Four is so very similar to what happens to Peeta in the Hunger Games…

I wish I didn’t sound so very dismissive of the book because I practically inhaled it, but by its end I was no longer sure I wanted to continue reading. Most of my questions would probably get answered in the next book, it’s just that I’m not sure I really want to read on.

The truth is, this novel feels more like a play on a dystopian novel and not an actual story that transports you into the world you’re reading about.

Does that make sense?

P.S. After all this, I still want to point out the fact that I read it (quickly) and enjoyed it, it’s just that in hindsight I can actually look at it and see what is it that was bothering me.

“In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she’s kept hidden from everyone because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.”

Tagged: Abnegation, Book review, Divergent, dystopian, Factions, Tris, Veronica Roth