As mentioned earlier, I was at the tail-end of the Divergent trilogy in January. My review is here at Goodreads. Veronica Roth is not long out of college and wrote much of the trilogy while still in college. I am not sure what that says about college, but it is an impressive feat of writing to put together a coherent 3-volume narrative in that time span while otherwise academically occupied. I am convinced that even the most creative fiction authors are still autobiographers. Who Veronica Roth is seeps deeply into the characterizations in Divergent-Insurgent-Allegiant, particularly the values that Tris holds and her view of her parents.
The YA genre works because it is idealistic, fast-paced, emotional, reactionary. Exactly. I was a teenager once. Which is why I am not recommending a steady diet of this for my daughters or anyone else for that matter. However, in the inescapable buzz of our media-saturated culture, the Divergent movie will be this year's Hunger Games. Oh, wait, Hunger Games 2 is this year's Hunger Games… Anyway, I am not sure about watching the Divergent movie because there are some parts in the book that could lend themselves to overly violent or overly sexual imagery. Have to wait for some reviews.
Whether anyone in my family reads the books or not, the story will be out there. And I want to be part of that story with my daughters.
Some great questions are raised, not necessarily answered, by the series:
What does it mean to be loyal to family, friends, your culture?
What do you do about conflicting loyalties?
How much does your genetic heritage determine who you are?
Can you overcome a horrible childhood or even a slightly flawed childhood?
What is the place of faith in an often violent and unjust world?
Those are precisely the kind of questions I should be discussing with my idealistic, fast-paced, emotional, reactionary teenage daughter. :-)
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