Divergent by Veronica Roth

If you cannot tell by now I am a HUGE dystopian, fantasy, young adult genre loving adult. I think as a reader I got engulfed in the Twilight series first, and after that I was hooked. As a reader I enjoy these kind of stories because of the sense of friendship, love, teamwork, and honestly, girl power that is in a lot of these novels. The Divergent series has always been at the top of my favorite list. Veronica Roth has created a female protagonist that teaches us females how to stand up for who we are. I think young adults that read these kind of stories, especially teenage females, need to know they are valued, and in charge of their lives, and Tris, the main character does this exquisitely.
Tris grows up in a faction system that has people grouped based off what their personality instincts label as. They can be Dauntless, Candor, Amity, Abnegation, and Erudite. There is also characters that are Divergent, or they exhibit characteristics from each faction, but to be Divergent is basically taboo. This story follows Tris as she takes her test to see which faction she should fall into, and how she finds out she is Divergent. She goes against the advice and chooses to become Dauntless where she feels the least connection to. What is a typical young adult/dystopian novel without a love story right? Tris falls in love with her teacher, Four who is also from Abnegation, but chose Dauntless to flee from his childhood of torment.
For me, this story, and the two following books in the series, create a character so rich in plot and development. Tris becomes who she was destined to be. She goes from being a quiet Abnegation girl, to the outspoken and fiery character we love. She fights for what she believes in. She saves her friends and family.
This story also looks at how we label people. They sift these people into factions, and expect them to only excel at what they are supposed to. They never are to step out of line. Most of these children chose the life they were born into, but some like Tris, her brother Caleb, and Four leave behind the familiar, and explore something new. I think this is a good analogy for anyone. We do not have to be raised to be just one thing. This is a great life lesson to teach our students. We can be what we want to be, and we should be that, not what others want us to be.