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Having loved the Hunger Games trilogy, I wasn’t sure about trying another YA attempt at utopia which begins to fall apart, but my friends raved about it, so I thought I should give it a try.

This time we have a society split into five “factions”

• Erudite – values intelligence
• Candor – values honesty
• Amity – values peace
• Dauntless – values bravery
• Abnegation – values selflessness

On one day every year, all the 16 year olds are assessed to see which faction they are, and then they choose where they will live out the rest of their days. This might be the faction they grew up in, or they may transfer. And they don’t have to choose the one they get in their test results.

It turns out though, that some people just don’t fit into any given faction, their test results are inconclusive, these people are “divergent”. Society doesn’t really acknowledge this and so the best thing to do is pretend you’re not.

For those who fail initiation in their new factions, they are deemed “factionless” and have to go and live outside of society, a little like being homeless I imagined it. But this is at least accepted, better that than being known to be divergent.

It’s not hard to guess that our lead character doesn’t have a smooth ride of it as we join her on the day of assessment and choosing her faction, and from there, follow her through her initiation.

As I alluded to before, of course this system is not perfect. Problems are arising between some of the factions, all is not as it seems on the outside… I think I’ll leave it there for you to discover yourself.

So is it as good as Hunger Games? No I don’t think so, but it’s a good book in itself. I will read the other two, but I spent so long on this one due to things like moving house and going on holiday and changing hours at work…. I think I’ll read something else before getting started on the sequel.