Bon's Book Club... Divergent by Veronica Roth

Bonnie at The Life of Bon hosts a book club on the last Thursday of every month and because we all know how much I love reading, I figured why not add a bloggy book club to my ever growing list of book clubs!  This month for "Bon's Book Club" we read Divergent by Veronica Roth which was exciting because I really enjoyed this series (while minus the last book because well I was disappointed with how she chose to end the series, but that is a topic for a whole other blog post) and I really want to see the movie, so it was good to get my Divergent on before hitting up the movies (which I have still yet to do).

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So on with the discussion for "Bon's Book Club".....

Who is your favorite character in the novel and why?
I would have to say that Tori is my favorite character in the novel (even though when writing this I had a total brain fart and had to text one of my friends with a description of Tori to find out what her name was).  Tori was the woman who administered Tris' aptitude test to her and was the first one to know that Tris was a Divergent. I like that Tori tried to help Tris to understand that she was a Divergent and that while being Divergent was something to be proud of that it was something that could end up getting Tris killed.  I felt like Tori was almost like a guardian angel to Tris and for that reason I really liked her.  Of course Tori might also be my favorite character because I know how she develops in the books to come (that is the danger of having read all of them... makes it hard to pick a favorite based on just the first book), but I really did like the fact that she tried to help Tris understand who she was and who she was going to become once she chose to join the Dauntless.

Did you like Tris as the main character? Why or why no? Do you see her as a strong female lead?
I am not going to lie, I did enjoy Tris as the main character.  In the beginning I thought she was going to be just an annoying girl who didn't know what she wanted out of life and who wasn't going to do anything to go against the grain.  I felt like she wasn't going to pick the Dauntless even though that was what she wanted.  Then she went and surprised me... became a Dauntless and then was the first one to make the jump.  She definitely grew on me because while in the Dauntless compound she began to remind me of myself in that she is really stubborn.  She ends up being one to not let people tell her what to do or what not to do... she stands up for the "little" people... she is head strong... she doesn't give up.  All qualities I like to think that I have.

What did you think of the ending to the book? Was it satisfactory to you?
Personally I don't ever think that the endings to books in a series are satisfactory.  They almost always usually leave you wanting more and I don't think that the ending to this book was any different.  The only good thing was that I was so late hopping on the Divergent train that I was able to get the first two books at the same time so I didn't have to wait to find out what was going to happen next.  I almost wish however that all the books were somehow rolled into one because like I said the endings just kept me being like "What just happened?!" and "Are you kidding me, this is how it ends?!"

How do you feel about Tris and Four's relationship? Could you tell that Four liked her before Tris figured it out?
I feel like Tris was being a stupid girl in this book.  To me it seemed obvious that there was something going on between them from the first few interactions they had with each other.  I was pretty convinced that they were somehow going to end up together.

Anything else you want to say, add, admit, confess?
When I first started reading this book I honestly wasn't really sure that I would like the series.  It didn't seem like anything that I had ever read before... plus the tack of factions reminded me a little bit of Brave New World which anyone who knows me knows is NOT one of my favorite books and the fact that I ended up having to read it for three different classes...once in high school and twice in college... well lets just say that the more I read it the more I wasn't a fan. So not being a fan of Brave New World I was skeptical about all this faction non-sense and I thought that it was really going to annoy me, but for some reason I was ok with it this time around.  The idea that people could only belong to one faction and would have to completely denounce the other factions was a bit hard to wrap my head around because it seemed a bit unrealistic, but as the series goes on I feel like you learn that most people in the factions have qualities of the other factions so it really isn't as bad.

So there you have it people... my thoughts on Divergent by Veronica Roth based on the questions posed by Bonnie.  (Note: she had a few more questions but I felt like my post was getting a bit wordy so I just deleted them because well I didn't think I had very good answers to them anyway.)  Looking forward to April and getting to read Night Circus by Eric Morgenstern.  Hopefully in April I will be able to link up on the actual day instead of being super busy and posting almost a week late!

As always, today I am thankful for this bloggy book club.  Although I may always be late to the party or I may not even post in general about the book... I am glad that I have found an excuse to read some good books... and some books I never would have picked up on my own to read.  I am also thankful that Bon is an English teacher and comes up with some great questions for us all to answer about the books!  Makes my life easier!