What Faction are You In? - Book Review

I just finished the Divergent series by Veronica Roth. OK, scratch that. I mostly finished the Divergent series by Veronica Roth.

I started the books in good faith. I even cut them a little bit of slack. I thought the story, while interesting in concept, took too long to tell and because of that, I made it about 1/3 of the way through the third book before I gave up and looked up the ending on Wikipedia.

So, the book is about a dystopian society where all the people are separated into 5 separate factions based on their talents and convictions. The main character, Tris, decides to leave the faction she was born into and join a more daring one. She meets a boy. They fall in teenage love. The world crumbles around them. They fight back, learn some secrets about the world they live in. They fight people. They foil plans. Some of them fall on their swords for the greater good. Some of them walk into the sunset, ready to fight another day.

I liked that this book had a strong female lead, rather than a wishy-washy one. Tris, the strong female lead, was in a struggle among duty to self, duty to state and duty to love. It was refreshing that the book didn't focus on a totally winey girl who couldn't decide between  a werewolf and a vampire to submit to or a hunter or a baker to conquer.

I don't mind long books. If given a series of books to read, I will read the whole thing as though it's one book. What I don't like is when simple plots take too long to unfold.

I will certainly see the movie when it comes out on streaming netflix.