7 Books to Read After Divergent
Divergent tapped into something specific: the feeling of not belonging in any category, of being told your nature is a threat. These 7 books understand that feeling.
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Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take her sister's place in the Hunger Games — a televised death match where two teenagers from each of the twelve districts fight to the death.
The defining YA dystopia that Divergent followed. Collins's world is more politically sophisticated; Katniss is a different kind of heroine — less idealistic, more damaged. Essential companion reading.
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Thomas wakes in an elevator with no memory, arriving in a glade surrounded by a massive maze that changes every night. The other boys have been there for years, and none of them have found a way out.
The faction-based society replaced with a maze-based prison — the same sense of a world designed to test and sort young people, run by adults with hidden motivations. The mystery plotting is strong.
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In a dark future Los Angeles, a Republic military prodigy and the country's most wanted criminal find themselves on opposite sides of a conspiracy that implicates everything they believed in.
The dual-perspective narration of Divergent expanded — two teenagers on opposite sides of the same system, each discovering that the other is not the enemy. Lu's plotting is efficient and the romance earns its development.
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A girl from the Scholar caste and a Martial soldier are pulled into each other's orbits in an empire built on conquest and maintained by terror.
The faction-based social hierarchy replaced with a militarised caste system drawn from Roman history. Tahir's world is more brutal; the romance between characters who should be enemies is just as well-constructed.
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In a world divided between Silvers (who have powers and rule) and Reds (who are powerless and serve), Mare Barrow discovers she has powers no one has ever seen. The Silver elite have only one option: use her.
The same premise as Divergent: a person whose nature doesn't fit the established categories becomes a weapon and a symbol. Aveyard's world is more fantasy, less science fiction, but the political structure maps directly.
Jonas lives in a Community where everything is controlled — family units, career assignments, even the weather. When he is selected as Receiver of Memory, he learns what has been lost.
The dystopia that everything else is in conversation with. Shorter and more haunting than Divergent; the revelation of how the Community maintains itself is as good as anything in YA dystopia.
In the Society, Officials control everything — who you marry, where you work, when you die. Cassia has been Matched with her best friend. Then a second face appears on her microcard.
The most direct tonal match to Divergent: a dystopia where the threat is social control rather than overt violence, and the romance is the centre of the story.