Divergent - Veronica Roth

Filming has wrapped up on the movie version of Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games. This fan of YA Dystopia will be waiting to see how it compares to the book.

And there have been a lot of books in the last year being touted as the next thing to read if you've finished Collins' books. Or comparing themselves to The Hunger Games. And sadly many have fallen short. But not so in the case of Divergent by Veronica Roth - it hits the mark.

Chicago in some dystopian future. Society has divided itself into five factions: the honest, the selfless, the brave, the peaceful and the intelligent. On their birthday, sixteen year olds must pick the faction they will live with for the rest of their lives. It can be the one they were born into...or the one they feel they should belong too. One or the other, but not more than one. For most citizens, it's an easy choice. But for Beatrice, the choice is a difficult one - her test scores indicate she could easily belong to more than one faction - she is divergent and it's a dangerous thing to be.

Beatrice, now calling herself Tris, makes her unexpected choice. As she struggles to fit into her faction, she starts seeing cracks in her society's heretofore seemingly perfect world. And there are others who see it too....

Chaos, danger, friendship, betrayal, choices, loss, romance - Divergent has it all. Yes, some of it is somewhat cliched, but it's YA fiction, not a great literary work. For great escapist, entertainment reading, Divergent is perfect. Be warned - there is a fair amount of violence.

I actually listened to this one in audio format. The reader, Emma Galvin, did a great job, Her voice is slightly gravelly and rough - exactly like I thought Tris would sound. She captures the male voices equally well.

Divergent is the first in a trilogy, with the second book - Insurgent- scheduled for May 2012. I'm hooked.

Read an excerpt of Divergent. Or, listen to an excerpt of Divergent. Keep up with Veronica on her blog, Twitter and Facebook.