Young Adult Books: Divergent Series, Divergent
Divergent is the first book in the Divergent Series by Veronica Roth. The major character is a girl named Beatrice Prior, who is later known as Tris. She lives in a dystopian world where people are grouped into factions: Abnegation, Erudite, Candor, Amity, and Dauntless. Each faction has its own rules of behavior and perform certain jobs for the city.
Children are born into a faction, but can choose to change factions during an annual ceremony when they are sixteen. But before they are allowed to choose, each child is put through a test to determine which factor they belong in. It is then that Tris discovers that she does not truly belong in any one faction, but is Divergent, which the test administrator tells her she must hide, because it is very dangerous.
During the ceremony, Tris decides to leave Abnegation for Dauntless, where she goes through a vigorous initiation process, learning to fight with her hands, guns, and knives. One of her trainers is known as Four, and her growing relationship with him and her discoveries about what it means to be Divergent make up the rest of the book.
This book had me involved from the first page, learning about Tris world, the factions, and the hard choices Tris has to make. Tris learns valuable lessons about friendship, family, and who she can and cannot trust. Nothing is ever easy for her, and the resulting plot twists keep the reader engaged at every turn. I highly recommend this book.