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OHMYGOODNESS.

I didn't really avoid this book, but I wasn't going to go out of my way to read it. And when I did finally get it from the library (This was stupid of me. I should have spent the money to own it), I let it sit on my shelf while I happily gobbled up other books. Until finally it came down to Divergent or book with font I wanted to kick across the room. So, I wasn't exactly waiting to read the book or anything. I wasn't expecting it to be amazing or have characters I loved or give me a new literary crush.

I winded up skipping out on watching The Rise of the Guardians to eat up this book - which is saying a lot since I am in love with that movie.

So, the story. Beatrice lives in a dystopian world where the population is split into factions. The people there choose which faction they will belong to at 16, after an aptitude test. Well, as if things weren't confusing enough for her, she gets an abnormal result on the aptitude test. She is Divergent - whatever that means. She soon learns, as she goes through the initiation for Dauntless, what it means to be Divergent.

Okay, that sounds pretty lame. But it wasn't. There was action, some romance - not stupid romance either - great characters, and well-done world set-up.

The only thing I was even close to not liking was the first chapter. I got over that pretty quickly.

Tris (formerly Beatrice) was great. Sometimes characters don't really change at all and sometimes they go through these drastic changes that annoy me. Not so here. She changed, but she didn't change to the point that she was a whole other person. Except maybe in violence, but that's to be expected, being in Dauntless and all.
Roth did a great job with all the characters. There were layers and any characters actively involved in the story were REAL. Not just there to advance the plot, but a part of the world. I love love loved that she did more with Eric as a person than most people would have. Will and Christina - loved them.
And... Four. I got to know him without having everything spelled out for me. I wanted to know him. The only reason I didn't want anything to happen with him was because, well, in a perfect world I would somehow wind up there and get him for myself. Except I liked them together, so she can have him. (By the way, all of that. Really weird for me to have a reaction like that. Either I was somehow in a really weird state of mind reading this or Roth did a kickass job).

The world of Divergent. I have some questions about it, but I'm pretty sure that at this point Tris doesn't quite know the answers for them. And that's how it should be. I don't know how everything works in this world, I don't want a first-person narrative telling me EVERYTHING. I like discovering things along with the characters. Like how the Dauntless work. She didn't have a previous knowledge and neither did I.
I loved how Roth splits up the population in Factions. It's a neat idea and is interesting.
The pace of the book was really good too. It never dragged. The action and non-action was well balanced. neither the action nor the plot/characters were abandoned.

One of my favorite moments: When Christina says that Four is so tough, he has to be afraid of something like marshmallows. I just died there.

Of laughter. Unlike when something happens with Al and I was all *blubber blubber... gaaaahhh*.

I felt connected to the MC, the love interest, AND the "side" characters. I got tied into their emotions too. Not because the emotions were all over their faces, but because I got to know them. I could hug Roth for that alone.

Something I really really appreciated. God didn't suddenly disappear. That happens quite a bit in dystopian stuff. There's no religion, no mention of God. But here, while it's not like GODGODGODGODGOD, Tris's Dad prays. She has a thought about God when it looks like she is about to die.

Also: I really enjoyed that Four didn't say anything along the lines of "You are super sexy. So stop saying you aren't, you ridiculous girl". Way too many guys say that. He agrees with her that she isn't ugly but isn't anything spectacular. I wanted to hug him for that (and really really wish I could remember what page that was on and quote it). So we know that the protagonist is nothing special. She doesn't make any mention of huge boobs (whenever I read this in a book, I feel like throwing the book across the room), she actually calls her figure "childlike". So her face is average and her body, while probably pretty nice, isn't one of those bodies that are thin but then... not. As an average-looking girl with not the best body, I loved that.

Basically, everything in this book works. Not only does it work, it's amazing.