Book Review Divergent

“Divergent” is about a 16 year old girl named Beatrice or “Tris” living in the author’s dystopian Chicago. Society is divided into 5 factions, each dedicated to a different virtue. She must select the faction in which she lives the rest of her life in. It is a decision between her family and who she thinks she is. I thought it was one of the best books I have ever read. The author wrote the book very well and had very good details. This book relates to Biology by Evolution and Genetics. Divergent is considered a mutation in which a person has characteristics of all five factions and the mutation is beneficial to society but the leaders of the factions feel threatened by. In the book, The city of Chicago was used as a test to see the fittest of all the factions and who can survive in a general sense. Within all the factions, the newly chosen teenagers have to go through training to see who is the best fit and compete against each other to get in the faction. Additionally, most of the time the teenagers tend to stay in their faction they were born into. Because of the separation of the traits of each faction: Intelligence, Bravery, Peacefulness, Honesty, and Selflessness, there is a form of selection. For example if the Dauntless(brave) faction only mate with other Dauntless, they would continue to pass on the genes of bravery and there is a form of selection from isolation and eventually speciation. Something I learned from this book and found very interesting was all the testing in the teenagers brains when they trained for their factions. Divergent people have a special way of knowing that these tests of fear are only in their head and can break through the technology the leaders use against them. These tests show how dreams can feel so real and it is all in your head. It also shows the power of medicine in your body. After reading this book I want to read more Science-fiction books because I find them very interesting.