Teenagers are hormonal, cruel, and irrational. They tend to make bad decision in a rush. Got that. Pains come with bodily injuries. We got that too. It is not cool when your friends were killed. OK.
In this future world, all 16-year old must take an aptitude test and choose a faction to live off his or her life. Each of the four factions adhere, nearly religiously, to a set of values: truthfulness, courage, benevolence, selflessness, etc. But Beatrice’s aptitude test came out ambiguous. She couldn’t choose. She is a Divergent.
That’s the first 10 pages of the first book and I finished it in a hurry. Then I got the second book and devour it too. Took no break, I dived into the third and burned several near all-nighters. One word of caution, be prepared to read all three books, in the right sequence. They are really just one book, a long one. Too long, really.
The plot is relatively clever by mixing several obvious themes: races, prejudice, family, friendship, and teenage love. At the end, I categorize it to be a social SciFi with too many subplots. In this age of self-publishing, authors use the first volume to hook the readers for subsequent ones. Maybe this is the trend of mass market publishing.
I still recommend the books. But I have not and do not plan to watch the movies.