I think I have had enough post-apocalyptic dystopian YA for a while. This was probably the best read of the lot, but although I will read the other books in the series, they can just wait a while.
In this post-apocalyptic dystopian Chicago, society is divided into "factions" along philosophical lines concerned with what each group blames for war. Abnegation philosophy holds that selfishness is the primary cause of war, hence they strive for selflessness in all things. And so on, the other factions are Erudite, Dauntless, Candor, and Amity - fairly self-explanatory.
The timeframe is a little fuzzy and it seems fundamentally illogical to me that an entire society can separate itself based on ideological distinctions which in some ways remind me of college fraternities and sororities. At sixteen young people are tested to see which faction they should belong to, but they choose whether or not to follow those results - then they are tested and initiated according to protocols set up by each faction. The mechanisms of support for an essentially urban society are simply disregarded.
Predictably, there is a great deal of tension between the factions - with predictable results.
The heroine, Tris or Beatrice, does not test neatly into one or another faction - she is Divergent, possessing qualities of several factions - this makes her dangerous to those who want to control everything.
This series is being or has been made into a series of films. It's a natural - lots of action and bizarre sets.
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