This is undoubtedly the age of combat, competition and the fight for survival as far as young adult fiction is concerned; a lot of it translating very successfully into films. The trilogy by Veronica Roth captures the youthful zeitgeist with almost painful intensity.
In her debut novel and the first of the series, Divergent , the author introduces the reader to a (nameless) city with a population that is divided into personality-based factions — Abnegation, Dauntless, Candor, Amity and Erudite. The names are self-explanatory and each faction performs duties it is best suited for. Citizens who do not pass the initiation tests, however, are destined to live on the fringes of society as the factionless.
Sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior (Tris), born to gentle Abnegation parents, stands poised on the brink of selecting her faction. Just before the choosing ceremony she undergoes mandatory simulation tests where she learns to her consternation that she is Divergent, a dangerous deviation that should be kept a secret if she values her life. She chooses Dauntless, the warrior faction; while her elder brother opts for Erudite, which seeks knowledge. Shortening her name and exchanging grey attire for black, Tris throws herself whole-heartedly into the initiation process and emerges a lean, mean, tattooed fighting machine clawing her way up for survival. Her mentor Four (or Tobias) is constantly at her side, a steadying, supportive and sobering factor as is a bunch of good friends.
Whispers of dissent erupt into a full-fledged attack by one of the factions and a city goes to war. Tris, finding herself in the thick of things, discovers that they are in the grip of a clever villain who uses simulation techniques to cause rifts, cracks and turn friends into foes. The novel ends with Tris losing all that she valued deeply in life.
Insurgent opens in a ravaged terrain with Tris and Tobias fleeing the Dauntless premises and taking shelter with the Amity. A guilty secret simmers within Tris and she shows signs of losing her earlier balance and taking extreme steps even as her relationship with Tobias, now her boyfriend, totters dangerously in a clash of ideologies. Power suddenly shifts to an unexpected quarter, and Tris and her companions are again forced to choose sides in the gathering mutiny.
Tobias’s past unfolds bit by bit like the parts of a jigsaw puzzle and all that he had run away from appears to catch up with him. As Tris hurtles from one perilous situation another, she suddenly finds herself face to face with the enemy. The novel ends with precious information being rescued in the nick of time and a publicly transmitted video making an astonishing announcement to the city.
The concluding novel, Allegiant , walks right into science fiction territory. Narrated in the voices of Tris and Tobias, the reader gets a dual perspective on the same set of events. The city has woken up to the information that there is an outside world beyond their city. Tris and Tobias — now part of a small secret group named Allegiant — plan to escape the city now under the tyrannical rule of Evelyn Johnson. Their nocturnal escape is successful but the new world is full of disturbing facts. Tris learns that they and their old city have been mere pawns in a mammoth genetic experiment. A file left by Tris’s mother opens a portal to the past and Tris discovers the secret of her mother’s true identity. Likewise, Tobias — still fighting his private demons — suddenly finds himself caught in an identity crisis. As genetic warfare reaches a crescendo, the novel culminates in an unexpected and tragic end that may leave many a young reader heartbroken.
In etching mankind’s perennial craving for a Utopian world, Veronica Roth creates a very plausible canvas. The characters of Tris and Tobias are sharply etched and the progression of Tris from gullible child to tempestuous adolescent handled with sensitive subtlety. Timeless values like integrity, loyalty and uprightness are upheld in this trilogy which, in young fiction, is always a good thing.
The surprise factor is the vital parts played by the parents and siblings, all of which lend a quality of homely realism. Though the unfolding of events is racy, at a subterranean level the novels are an ode to people who dare to be different and refuse to be pigeonholed. Every nonconformist reader will find traces of himself/herself in Tris and Tobias as will every misfit. Roth writes with a leashed brilliance, a focused conciseness to her prose. There is never the danger of straying into excesses or indulging in unnecessary pyrotechnics. With this exceptionally well written and interesting trilogy, Veronica Roth is undoubtedly in for a long literary reign.
Divergent; Insurgent; Allegiant;Veronica Roth, HarperCollins, Rs.399, Rs.399 and Rs.350 respectively.
