Don't Be Afraid of the Dork

Dystopian YA fiction with a teenage heroine thrust into leading a revolution against her faction-based society. The idea behind the book is that after some unnamed devastating event society has decided that it must arrange itsefl along black and white lines. Five factions are formed based on what people felt were the human races downfall:

Abnegation = selfishness
Dauntless = fear or more accurately cowardice
Candor = Deciet
Erudite = Ignorance
Amity = Unkindness

People are sorted at the age of 16 into the faction they have the most affinity with. Nice idea but it is not surprising that the system is starting to break down as people are rarely black and white.

I was not overly fond of the protagonist but I tend to be pretty critical about how heroines are written. It must be an incredibly difficult task as a writer to find the right balance between heroic and flawed. I don't think that balance is achieved here but I think most readers will find Tris acceptable.

Not terribly subtle or complex but an interesting idea and a moderately engaging story. I found the last 1/4 of the book the most readable. I haven't decided whether I am hooked enough to move on to book 2.