Book vs. Movie – Divergent

March 27, 2016June 4, 2019 by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 1 Comment

Hello everyone! Welcome back to another segment of Book Vs. Movie! It’s been a long time coming since my first post, and I apologize for the delay. As I mentioned in my previous post, this segment will discuss the similarities and differences between books and their movie counterparts. Sometimes I read the book before I watch the movie, like I did with The 5th Wave, or I watch the movie and eventually make my way to reading the book, like I did with Divergent. I can’t wait to hear your thoughts.

This week’s post will be about Divergent. Based off the amazing novel by Veronica Roth – a synopsis which is posted on my blog – this was an amazing movie experience. I remember when it first came out and I had never read the book. I got to go in to the movie without any expectations except for the trailers that I watched up until the point the movie came out. The movie came out two years ago, with two sequels since then, and only recently have I been able to actually read the book that started it all. It was such a relief to say that I liked the book as well as the movie.

But was there a certain part of the book that I felt should have been shown in the movie? Was there possible more than one? Of course there was.

****If you have not read the book or watched the movie and want to avoid spoilers, I would suggest not reading any further. Consider this your warning :)****

First of all, I have to say that I honestly feel like the movie and the book kept the same tempo for the majority of the time. It was actually really interesting to feel like I was watching the movie in my head while reading a book for the first time. Sometimes I feel like it’s better to read the book after watching the movie, but then again no matter what there are downsides, as well as upsides. So, here we go. Down to the discussion.

First of all, there was a really big difference between the book and the movie that really changed the premise of the story. In the book, once Tris finds out that Four is really Tobias Eaton, he would rather have her call him by his real name, saying that he misses the sound of his own name after all these years. It was actually part of the book that I really appreciated. It made me feel like even though Four/Tobias wasn’t going to ever forgive his father for the abuse that he endured in his childhood, he still wasn’t going to completely discount his past. He still had some ties to it, and he didn’t erase his identity from the Abnegation boy that he grew up as. In the movie, however, Tris continues to call him Four even though she found out his true identity. Not once did he want Tris to call him by his real name, nor did he want to acknowledge who he really was. It becomes even more important to me in the next movie installment, where he doesn’t even want to hear that name from anyone else that knows his true identity. That small fact changes the tone of the story for me, in a big way.

Sure it may not feel big to other people, but it’s the little details like that that make a story great.

There were also a lot of gruesome parts in the book that I honestly feel should have been kept in the movie. Of course, that probably would have changed the rating to R, like I would imagine it to be, and defeated the purpose of drawing its target audience into theaters. For one, when Tris and the other Dauntless initiates had to jump off the train for the first time, one of them actually didn’t make it. In fact, it was a Dauntless born that didn’t make it, and she ends up dying. For all their acts of bravery, this death so early in the book shows that life is not guaranteed no matter how much society wants them to believe so. It would make sense for a transfer to be the one to die first, not being used to jumping onto buildings from moving trains and all. But to have a Dauntless be the one to miss it that first and only time, after spending her life training to do exactly that kind of thing really brings things into perspective for Tris and the rest of them. They now realize just what kind of faction they got into, and it opens their eyes to see that it’s not just all fun and games. They are part of the security of the society, built to keep everyone within the walls safe. But that doesn’t mean the Dauntless themselves are guaranteed their own safety in return.

The other gruesome part that they should have kept in was when Edward got stabbed in the eye right after proving that he was the best initiate in Dauntless. Edward had a very small part in the movie, but he was the best physically out of all the initiates. He was so good, that Peter and his cronies felt so threatened by him that they ended up stabbing him while he was sleeping. They probably meant to kill him when they stabbed him in the face, but Edward was lucky that only his eye was destroyed. Maybe it would have been better for him if he died though, rather than become factionless due to a bunch of cowards who weren’t ready to face the idea of not making it past the first round. This action, this shocking part in the novel would have shown a much brighter light on Peter’s cowardice, not just when he tried to throw Tris into the Pit with Al.

There was also a part in the movie that I thought was really nice. After Tris stood up to Eric during the knife-throwing scene. The only person who really had an issue with Tris was Peter. Everyone else, Molly included, thought that Tris was really cool, and really brave for standing up to him. In the book, Molly never showed any signs of respecting Tris at all. She was too busy being Peter’s lackey to know just how much of a bad ass chick Tris was becoming. I liked that the movie made Molly seem more approachable, even though we did see her beat up Tris to a pulp. Then again, that wasn’t really her fault. She was only following orders, after all.

I could go on and on about the difference between the movie and the book, and it would take me forever. At least it would feel like forever to me. So I will just touch on one more part that I really liked about the movie that was different from the book.

When Tris and her mom fight against the Dauntless together.

Yes, that was the moment that I was really proud of Tris and her mom. It was then that Tris finally realized that her mom was Dauntless (in the book she found out on the Parent Visitor Day while in the Dauntless compound), but to actually see her mom in action even though she hadn’t been in Dauntless for years was amazing to see. Her mom was the one who saved Tris from being executed right on Abnegation territory, and it was her mom that helped her get as far as she did right before she sacrificed herself for her own daughter. Her mom’s bravery and selflessness during the heat of battle was something that I wish was included in the book, but I was so glad that the movie showed it. I feel like it did her mom justice, and really portrayed to the audience that her mom was a force to be reckoned with. It showed where Tris got her strength, not just from herself but from her mother as well.

So, after all that, all the differences I found and after just rewatching the movie one more time to fully make sure I wanted to talk about the points that I felt were so important to me, I’ve made a decision on which one was better:

The MOVIE totally won this time.

And that’s officially it for this segment of Book vs. Movie. This felt like a long post, so thank you for bearing with me on this. If you haven’t read Divergent already, I honestly suggest you do. Plus you should also watch the movie and let me know your thoughts. Was there something I left out that spoke to you more than what I included? Let me know in the comments below.

Divergent – Book Review

March 25, 2016 by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

“I believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another.”

The appeal of dystopian novels is the “what if” factor. What if the world ended and there were only a few humans left? What if after a hundred years of living, people began to show signs of supernatural abilities? What if the world started having competitions where children were forced to kill one another in order to have their families have food for the rest of the year? It’s those kinds of questions that people crave to have answered, without actually going through it themselves. It is with the power of books and storytelling that these questions can be explored in their own universe.

So what if the remaining humans in the world decided that the best way to keep control over society was by categorizing them into five specific character traits?

This is where Divergent comes in to play, and the world that author Veronica Roth created. Each person has to choose which group they want to belong to: Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless, and Erudite. Each group is known for a specific trait: Abnegation is selfless, Amity is peaceful, Candor is honest, Dauntless is brave, and Erudite is intelligent. These groups are called Factions, and this kind of society has been working for as long as they can remember. “Faction before blood” is their mantra, for even though one can be born to a certain faction, on their sixteenth birthday they can decide whether to stay in their born faction or more on to a different one. But once they choose, they can never change their decision, or they risk being factionless, without a home or family ever again. In a city that used to be Chicago, society is functioning as well as could be expected in the wake of a decaying world.

Beatrice Prior, born into the Abnegation faction, doesn’t feel quite so selfless as the rest of her family. She feels like maybe something is wrong with her for feeling this way. Why should she not be as selfless as her family when they are all Abnegation? She spends her spare moments watching the Dauntless kids, the ones who her father believes are wild animals because they frequently do daring acts that no other faction would do. Like jump on and off moving trains for example. But that’s just who they are, and Dauntless are the brave after all. Beatrice turns 16 and it’s finally time for her to take her aptitude test, the one that will tell her which faction she belongs to. But when the time comes and the test is finally over, she hears that her results were inconclusive, that she has an equal chance of being Abnegation, Dauntless, and Erudite. How can that be? Is she the only one that has been like this before?

And what exactly does being Divergent mean?

After finding out what she did about her, and knowing that she’s not allowed to discuss her results to anyone else, she has to make a choice on where she wants to be for the rest of her life. Will she stay in Abnegation, where she already feels out of place? Or will she take a chance and become a Dauntless, following her dream of getting out there and doing something with her life? Will her family be okay with her decision? Will she be okay with it? Will this decision change her life forever?

By changing the course of her life forever, by choosing to jump on a train and become a Dauntless initiate, Beatrice transforms herself into Tris, and her new life is born. She goes through many trials, both physical and mental, in order to prove herself to be worthy of being in this faction. She goes from being the girl that was born to stay out of people’s way, to being a target to those who see her as a threat. And while part of that reason may be because she’s been labeled as “Divergent”, it’s also because Tris herself is an enigma that the rest of the world doesn’t know how to handle. She is more than just brave, more than just selfless. She is everything that the society has based their world on, not just one or the other; those that want power just don’t know how to keep her in check, and that’s what makes her so dangerous to them.

I really enjoyed this book, and I’m glad I finally got to read it after seeing the movie when it first came out. It gave me a different perspective going into the book, and it actually made me appreciate the movie even more. I feel like Book-Tris and Movie-Tris had their differences, but I won’t discuss that on this post. Look for my Book vs. Movie post for Divergent, hopefully coming out soon.

Rated: 5/5 Stars

Divergent – Veronica Roth

March 21, 2016 by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Paperback features over fifty pages of bonus materials, including a sneak peek of Insurgent, an author Q&A, a discussion guide, a Divergent playlist, faction manifestos, and more!

In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she’s kept hidden from everyone because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

Veronica Roth is the New York Times bestselling author of Divergent, the first in a trilogy of dystopian thrillers filled with electrifying decisions, heartbreaking betrayals, stunning consequences, and unexpected romance.