Imprudent: Book 1 - Reliant, The story of a girl who can't accomplish anything without her boyfriend

I must admit before I begin that Divergent did exceed my expectations.  However, that really doesn’t mean anything when you take into consideration just how low my expectations were.  And I mean really, really low.  But the books got so much hype that I had to give it a try.  Divergent is the story of sixteen year-old Beatrice, err, that is, Tris.  No, not Trish.  Tris.   Well no, as a matter of fact, I don’t know why in the heck she chose that name.  I’ll just take to calling her Beatrish.  Anyway, Beatrish lives in a post-apocalyptic, dystopian society divided into five districts, houses, factions, Erudite (The Nerds), Dauntless (The Adrenaline Junkies), Amity (The Hippies), Abnegation (Umm, The Mennonite Hippies; it also happens to be Beatrish’s faction), and that other one, oh right, Candor (The Socially-Inept Truthers).  Yes, I am perfectly aware of the inconsistency of the names of the factions; two adjectives and three nouns.  I’m sure the author had a very valid reason for it.  There are also the Factionless (The Homeless), who don’t play any major role until halfway through the second book.  Each year all the sixteen year-olds choose which faction they wish to join permanently by cutting their hands (because spilling one’s blood always means you’re dead serious) and spilling their blood into one of five bowls representing each faction.  Before they do this, however, they undergo testing to determine which faction they are best suited to.  Beatrish, in an unorthodox turn of events, is compatible for three factions, Erudite, Abnegation, and Dauntless, indicating that she is what is known as Divergent, meaning that she ummmm, she uhh, she…  Is…  Divergent?  Honestly nobody knows what the heck Divergent really means until a quarter of the way through the third book.  Predictably, Beatrish joins the Adrenaline Junkies, and she is quickly whisked away on a train to the Dauntless compound/homes base/dormitory/district to start her initiation, a testing phase that the teenagers go through to prove themselves to their faction.  Her brother Caleb chooses Erudite, who are represented as evil and manipulative. As their first test, the Dauntless initiates have to jump onto a moving train and subsequently jump off the same moving train onto the rooftop of a building.  Not surprisingly, someone fails to make it onto the building and dies down on the street, providing the much-needed “this is where the book gets serious” wake-up call.  

Beatrish then gets to jump off a building into a net far below – all to prove her worth to her faction, of course.  Once in the compound, Beatrish meets her instructor and love of her life – well okay, that comes later – Four.  Yes, I know it’s a stupid name.  The book says as much itself.  He has four fears, which is kind of a big deal in Dauntless, so he named himself Four.  Four and generic badguy Eric are in charge of the training of the initiates, so they immediately set about pitting the initiates against each other in physical combat, mainly having them punch the snot out of each other.  During all this, supporting characters Will (who dies by the end of the book), Christina (Will’s girlfriend and Beatrish’s close friend), Al (who dies before the book ends too), Peter (cruel, but ultimately petty villain and bully, but all in all plays an important role in the books), Tori (a tattoo artist who really plays no vital role in the plot except giving Beatrish her tattoos), and Edward (a tough guy who ends up being stabbed by Peter, so as to put him out of contention in the intiation, and is ultimately never avenged and ends up dying in the second book, never playing a major role) are introduced.  Beatrish performs poorly in the first round of combat, but she makes a comeback, eventually beating the crap out of one of Peter’s cronies who had tormented her.  The next two phases of the initiation put Beatrish through what is called a “fear landscape”, which bring her worst fears to life through a hallucinatory sleep.  Due to her Divergence however, Beatrish is able to bend the fear landscapes to her will.  Or something like that.  It really doesn’t make sense.  Anyway, during all this, Beatrish and Four’s romance grows, and soon enough, Beatrish has him taking off his shirt so she can look at his ripped chest, I mean, so she can look at the tattoos on his back – Dauntless are big on tattoos.  Even Beatrish gets a few throughout the course of the book.  

In the heart pounding conclusion, all the little hints and references culminate in the Erudite brainwashing and controlling the Dauntless (although Four and Beatrish are immune because of their Divergence, another convenient side effect), using them to slaughter all the Abnegation.  Beatrish and Four – whose name turns out to actually be Tobias and whose father is a leader of the Abnegation, oh yeah, and beat him as a child – are captured by the Erudite and brought before yet another villain, Jeanine, the leader of the Erudite.  Just in time, Beatrish’s mother comes in and saves them, sacrificing her own life in the process, giving them an opportunity to try to disable the simulation that is controlling the Dauntless.  In their attempt to shut down the simulation, Beatrish’s father also dies.  Beatrish and Tobias successfully shut down the mind-control simulation and escape to the Amity compound, who have conveniently stayed neutral during the chaos of the Abnegation annihilation.  That’s pretty much where the book ends.  Very inconclusive.

I’ll give credit where it’s due.  The set-up of the dystopian world in Divergent is very well executed.  The explanation of the five factions and the relations between them was intriguing and by far the best part of the book.  I found the slanderous articles that Erudite released against Abnegation – and pretty much the whole relationship between the two factions – far more engaging than any of the relationships between the individual people.  It is (unfortunately) the only aspect of Veronica Roth’s writing that is interesting or well-written in the slightest.  The bickering between factions and other groups in the other two books was interesting as well.  The duty and loyalty that the people show to their factions is extremely poignant, spawning the saying in the book, “Faction before blood”, which says that the loyalty given to one’s faction is even stronger than one’s blood ties.  Yet for all this, much of the dystopia falls short of expectations.  The very system and government that they set up is so illogical and so ineffective as to be laughable.  There is no centralized authority in the factions.  There is no leading faction or any real person or even group of people in charge.  In addition why the heck are the factions based on virtues.  Beatrish says that the factions chose the virtue that they believed would stop immorality, Abnegation – selflessness, Dauntless – bravery, Amity – kindness, Erudite – knowledge, and Candor – honesty.  The idea that centralizing on one virtue and shunning the rest will defeat immorality and prevent future wars and strife is absolutely and irrefutably absurd.  Being honest will keep people from starting wars?  Honesty won’t keep people from being evil.  I could come up to any random person, be perfectly honest and tell him, “Hello, can I be frank with you?  I hate you, so I’ll just go ahead and kill you.”  I could be really smart.  Does that keep from being an incredibly rude, nasty, and overall wicked person?  HECK no it doesn’t!!!  I could be really brave too.  That doesn’t mean in the slightest that I’m not an absolutely dreadful person.  Not even Socialism can hold a candle to the stupidity of this government.

But wonder not, for the whole basis for the story isn’t the only thing screwed up past the point of coherence.  For example, why can’t Beatrish, the protagonist for goodness’ sake, do anything for herself without her boyfriend’s help?  
 - She can’t go one moment without ticking off badguy instructor Eric, forcing Four/Tobias to intervene on her behalf.  
 - When she gets kidnapped by the bully initiates, all she can do is kick and scream until Four comes and saves her butt.  
 - She’s is completely helpless when she gets captured by the Erudite near the end of the book, and her mom has to come and rescue her that time too.  
 - She can’t survive on her own for ten pages during the Dauntless invasion without someone saving her or dying on her behalf.

But of course, those are all plot-based complaints.  Divergent also happens to be one of the worst-written books I’ve ever read.  I could go on and on and on and, well, on some more, but I think it’s much easier just to demonstrate by showing a few examples of the atrocity of the writing.  If you want to retain your full IQ, I strongly suggest you skip past the following passages.

WARNING!!!  STUPIDITY AHEAD!!!

DANGER OF MELTING BRAIN CELLS!!!

STRONG CYNICAL ATTITUDE HIGHLY ADVISED.

‘“I have something I need to tell you," he says. I run my fingers along the tendons in his hands and look back at him. "I might be in love with you." He smiles a little. "I'm waiting until I'm sure to tell you, though."
"That's sensible of you," I say, smiling too. "We should find some paper so you can make a list or a chart or something."
I feel his laughter against my side, his nose sliding along my jaw, his lips pressing my ear.
"Maybe I'm already sure," he says, "and I just don't want to frighten you."
I laugh a little. "Then you should know better."
"Fine," he says. "Then I love you.”’
ACK PFFT!!!

‘My skin tingles at the point of contact, like he's transmitting electricity through his skin.’

‘”I couldn't do that,” I say. “It would have been like shooting myself.”
He looks pained and leans closer to me, so his lips brush mine when he speaks.’

That writing is just the worst.

‘I stare at him.  I feel my heartbeat everywhere, even in my toes.  I feel like doing something bold, but I could just as easily walk away.  I am not sure which option is smarter, or better.  I am not sure that I care.
I reach out and take his hand.  His fingers slide between mine. I can't breathe.  I stare up at him, and he stares down at me. For a long moment, we stay that way. Then I pull my hand away and run after Uriah and Lynn and Marlene. Maybe now he thinks I'm stupid, or strange. Maybe it was worth it.’

‘Is it selfish of me to crave victory, or is it brave?’
Well what do you think!?  How could craving victory be even remotely brave?  There is absolutely no correlation between bravery and craving victory

‘Human reason can excuse any evil.’ 
What the ****!!??  This has to be the most insulting thing to my intelligence I’ve ever read!!!  How the heck can human reason excuse any evil!?  Evil is evil you idiotic waste of paper space!!!  Human reason can in no way, in any universe at any time excuse any evil whatsoever!

“Sarcasm is always at someone's expense.”
Oh, really?  I never could have figured that out on my own.

‘"You don't have much muscle", he says, "which means you're better off using your knees and elbows. You can put more power behind them."
Suddenly he presses a hand to my stomach. His fingers are so long that, though the heel of his hand touches one side of my rib cage, his fingertips still touch the other side. My heart pounds so hard my chest hurts, and I stare at him, wide-eyed.
"Never forget to keep tension here", he says in a quiet voice.
Four lifts his hand and keeps walking. I feel the pressure of his palm even after he's gone. It's strange, but I have to stop and breathe for a few seconds before I can keep practicing again.’
That’s it!  I can’t subject myself to this anymore!!!

END OF STUPID ZONE

Divergent’s resemblance to Hunger Games is downright shocking.  Not really because it is a copy off of its superior, but because of the extremity of the similarity to the Hunger Games.  Again it would be easiest to pull out a specific part of the book and compare.  Tobias/Four says when he takes off his shirt:  
‘“I think we've made a mistake," he says softly. "We've all started to put down virtues of the other faction in the process of bolstering our own. I don't want to do that. I want to be brave, and selfless, and smart, and kind, and honest.”’  
Hmmm, sound familiar?  Let’s compare it with this:
‘I don't know how to say it exactly. Only... I want to die as myself. Does that make any sense?" he asks. I shake my head. How could he die as anyone but himself? "I don't want them to change me in there. Turn me into some kind of monster that I'm not."
I bite my lip feeling inferior. While I've been ruminating on the availability of trees, Peeta has been struggling with how to maintain his identity. His purity of self. "Do you mean you won't kill anyone?" I ask.
No, when the time comes, I'm sure I'll kill just like everybody else. I can't go down without a fight. Only I keep wishing I could think of a way to... to show the Capitol they don't own me. That I'm more than just a piece in their Games," says Peeta.
But you're not," I say. "None of us are. That's how the Games work."
Okay, but within that frame work, there's still you, there's still me," he insists. "Don't you see?"’
The conversations are almost identical.  Both concern identity and being who you are rather than what the system wants you to be.  And of course there are other similarities, such as the first-person present, lovesick, teenage girl narrative.  Yet for all its attempts to copy The Hunger Games, Divergent still fell far short of being anywhere close to being as good as HG. Hunger Games didn’t involve “lips brushing each other when they speak”, “skin tingling at someone’s touch, as though someone was sending electricity through you”, or “human reason excusing evil”.  Hunger Games also concerned a much more pressing subject matter.  The people in The Hunger Games were oppressed; the people in Divergent were just absolute morons.  The romance was secondary in Hunger Games, and the annual televised genocide was primary, while in Divergent the romance was primary, and the Abnegation genocide was secondary.

So I suppose you’re wondering whether or not I would recommend Divergent or not.  Well, I would make some sarcastic comment about the obvious nature of my opinion on this book, but as Beatrish says, “Sarcasm is always at someone’s expense.”  And therefore, we wouldn’t want to make a crude, sarcastic comment about how we would never in the entirety of time recommend Divergent to anyone would we Ms. Roth?