The Optimized Cookie

Howdy ya’ll! I’m kind of bummed I didn’t get to review the Divergent series right after I read them, but I’d still like to make a post related to my experience before, during, and after reading it.

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I am aware of how the fans are very knowledgeable and attached to this book series and I may not be as hardcore of a fan for this book as many, I did enjoy reading it for the most part and this is what I’ll be sharing in this post.

BEFORE

Before I started reading Divergent, I wanted to get into the hype of it since A LOT of people kept talking about how great it was and eventually I was curious enough to want to see it for myself. So many people recommended me this as well, especially after the movie came out.

I must confess though that when I watched the movie, I had no idea it was a book (shame on me, I know) and after watching the movie, which I thought was kick-ass awesome, I just had to read the book!

I only was able to pick this up in October, though. And seeing as I was very pleased with the movie, I had high hopes for this book. I expected a lot, especially since it’s a dystopian novel, of which is one of my favorite kinds of novels, add to the fact of all the hype it got and still gets to this day.

DURING

I guess since I was able to watch the movie before reading the book, visualizing the different kinds of factions and creating a picture with what the characters looked like was easy for me as well as sinking myself into the kind of world the book was set in.

On the onset, I was already interested with the premise: a different kind of way of how communities ruled and conducted themselves which was by factions. These factions are determined by one’s aptitude and behavior, then every year, a bunch of sixteen year olds get to choose what kind of faction they’d want to be in – Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless or Erudite – and stay in that particular faction for good, otherwise they’ll be factionless. Nobody wants to be factionless.

Then we meet Tris who is considered as a Divergent. In almost every case, a person should only have aptitude results for one particular faction. Tris had three. Cool, no? No. Divergent are considered as a threat to the “peace” their society is trying so hard to sustain, hence they eliminate them (and by eliminate, we pretty much know what that’ll mean).

Divergent was a great read, in my opinion. I really enjoyed meeting these different characters and being introduced to this faction system of theirs. It makes me feel a bit jealous of how easy you seem to know yourself on their end.

The next book, Insurgent, wasn’t as nice as a read for me, however. I mean I keep reminding myself this is not a love story so everything’s fine, but then I step back and try to look at the bigger picture but I just found this next book a bit too problematic for me to read. I hated the miscommunication and I didn’t get to relate as much with this book as much as I did with the previous one.

My feelings eventually bounced right back on track when I read Allegiant, and don’t worry, I’m trying my best to keep this as spoiler free as possible.

I felt that this book just tied everything together and it was perfectly executed to the point that I couldn’t imagine any other alternate endings to this. I felt that whatever happened in this book needed to happen whether or not it was hard to accept.

AFTER

I allowed myself a few hours to let it all sink in after finishing the last book. I then searched for videos and reviews of other people’s reaction to the trilogy and have found out that a number of them didn’t like the last book for multiple reasons including questioning the ending, unnecessary character changes, and an awkward narration of two points of view. I do respect their opinions, but I disagree.

Over-all I enjoyed this series because of how well I thought it was told and how much it affected my views on a lot of people. I most especially loved three points in the books: Science, Psychology and Politics. It really showed how well researched and thought-out this series was, as well.

My rating:

Divergent: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Insurgent: 🌟🌟🌟

Allegiant: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

What were your thoughts while reading this series? I’d love to hear what you have to say about it. 🙂 Tell me in the comments or you could tweet me ^^

Thanks for reading! x