Rating: ★★★★★

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 threatens to unravel her seemingly-perfect society, she also learns that her secret might be what helps her save those she loves … or it might be what destroys her.

I have been planning to read this for a long time, but I was always so broke when I visit a bookstore. And when I heard that they’re already making a movie out of it, I was eager to read it, so when I accompanied my brother to buy art materials, I didn’t hesitate in buying it anymore, since I don’t want to watch the movie first before reading it.

The story catches me off-guard with Tris’ determination and belief. Despite all the obstacles she’s been through in the initiation, she manages to stay strong and prove all the people around her that even though she’s a girl, a Stiff and small, she can still be brave and courageous. I learned that selflessness isn’t actually far from being brave.

Divergent will surely keep you up at night with the eagerness to know what will happen next in Tris’ extraordinary journey. With this, here is what really moved and made a mark on me. Straight inside my heart:

“I believe in ordinary acts of bravery; in the courage that drives one person to stand for another.”