Divergent Series

December 31, 2013 — books, divergant, hunger games, movies, veronica roth

By now you have at least heard of the Hunger Games and maybe even have seen one or both of the movies.  Hollywood seems to have jumped onto the teen fiction bandwagon in recent years and though Hunger Games was one of the more popular as of late, there are still more to come.  As a Pastor I do not get to read of lot of books for personal enjoyment, so when I do I tend to be picky.  My students had been on me to read the Divergent series for several months before I decided to pick up another apocalyptic thriller.  If you are not familiar with the Divergent series yet, it is broke up into a trilogy of books along with extra short stories if you just can not get enough of this new world.  I did fall into the latter and have conquered all that Veronica Roth had to offer.  Though Divergent has a very familiar feel to that of Hunger Games, peace and harmony are tackled in a very different way than that of Hunger Games.  When students reach a level in school, sometime around their sixteenth birthday, they are given an aptitude test of sorts through a chemically induced simulation.  The results of the test will determine where the students will spend the rest of their lives and quite possibly apart from the one they grew up in.  To maintain order communities are divided into five different fractions based upon their test: Abnegation believe that being selfless and humble are the only way to live, Amity take a peaceful and joyful life style, Candor believe in complete honesty no matter the cost, Dauntless are brave and overcome every fear they face, and the Erudite believe in intellegence and discovery of anything hidden to the mind.  These are the accepted communities, if you do not fit then you become fractionless and live outside community.  While from the outside the fractions seem to bring harmony remember that people are still people.  So not as to spoil the books I will leave the plot at that.  Veronica Roth has done a fantastic job at her use of little know vocabulary in naming the fractions to really give instant depth and charisma to these communities, not to mentions that the duties of the fractions really match that of their attributes.  I would like to note that the first book would be a great read for most of the middle school world and above, however as the series continues I would recommend some parental guidance for some relational situations.  There are also some emotionally challenging scenes that could inspire some really good communication if a parent is willing to dive in.  I hope you can tell that I am a fan of the series and I am looking forward to the movie.  If you would like to have further dialogue involving spoilers please do so through email as not to ruin it for others.