“That was nice. Want to go again, Four?” he says.
I don’t hesitate before answering. “Absolutely not.”
We walk back to the train in a loose cluster. Shauna walks with her braces, Zeke pushing the empty wheelchair, and exchanges small talk with Amar. Matthew, Cara, and Caleb walk together, talking about something that has them all excited, kindred spirits that they are. Christina sidles up next to me and puts a hand on my shoulder.
“Happy Choosing Day,” she says. “I’m going to ask you how you really are. And you’re going to give me an honest answer.”
We talk like this sometimes, giving each other orders. Somehow she has become one of the best friends I have, despite our frequent bickering.
“I’m all right,” I say. “It’s hard. It always will be.”
“I know,” she says.
We walk at the back of the group, past the still-abandoned buildings with their dark windows, over the bridge that spans the river-marsh.
“Yeah, sometimes life really sucks,” she says. “But you know what I’m holding on for?”
I raise my eyebrows.
She raises hers, too, mimicking me.
“The moments that don’t suck,” she says. “The trick is to notice them when they come around.”
Then she smiles, and I smile back, and we climb the stairs to the train platform side by side.
Since I was young, I have always known this: Life damages us, every one. We can’t escape that damage.
But now, I am also learning this: We can be mended. We mend each other.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
To me, the acknowledgments page is a place for me to say, as sincerely as possible, that I don’t prosper, in life or in books, because of my own strength or skill alone. This series may have only one author, but this author wouldn’t have been able to do much of anything without the following people. So with that in mind: Thank you, God, for giving me the people who mend me.
Here they are—
Thank you to: my husband, for not only loving me in an extraordinary way but for some difficult brainstorming sessions, for reading all the drafts of this book, and for dealing with Neurotic Author Wife with the utmost patience.
Joanna Volpe, for handling everything LIKE A BOSS, as they say, with honesty and kindness. Katherine Tegen, for excellent notes and for continually showing me the compassionate candy center inside the publishing badass. (I won’t tell anyone. Wait, I just did.) Molly O’Neill, for all your time and work and for the eye that spotted Divergent from what I’m sure was a giant stack of manuscripts. Casey McIntyre, for some major publicity prowess and for showing me astounding kindness (and dance moves).
Joel Tippie, as well as Amy Ryan and Barb Fitzsimmons, for making these books so gorgeous Every. Single. Time. The amazing Brenna Franzitta, Josh Weiss, Mark Rifkin, Valerie Shea, Christine Cox, and Joan Giurdanella, for taking such good care of my words. Lauren Flower, Alison Lisnow, Sandee Roston, Diane Naughton, Colleen O’Connell, Aubry Parks-Fried, Margot Wood, Patty Rosati, Molly Thomas, Megan Sugrue, Onalee Smith, and Brett Rachlin, for all your marketing and publicity efforts, which are far too substantial to name. Andrea Pappenheimer, Kerry Moynagh, Kathy Faber, Liz Frew, Heather Doss, Jenny Sheridan, Fran Olson, Deb Murphy, Jessica Abel, Samantha Hagerbaumer, Andrea Rosen, and David Wolfson, sales experts, for your enthusiasm and support. Jean McGinley, Alpha Wong, and Sheala Howley, for getting my words on so many shelves across the globe. For that matter, all my foreign publishers, for believing in these stories. Shayna Ramos and Ruiko Tokunaga, production whizzes; Caitlin Garing, Beth Ives, Karen Dziekonski, and Sean McManus, who make fantastic audiobooks; and Randy Rosema and Pam Moore of finance—for all your hard work and talent. Kate Jackson, Susan Katz, and Brian Murray, for steering this Harper ship so well. I have an enthusiastic and supportive publisher from top to bottom, and that means so much to me.
Pouya Shahbazian, for finding Divergent such a good movie home, and for all your hard work, patience, friendship, and horrifying bug-related pranks. Danielle Barthel, for your organized and patient mind. Everyone else at New Leaf Literary, for being wonderful people who do equally wonderful work. Steve Younger, for always looking out for me in work and in life. Everyone involved in “movie stuff”—particularly Neil Burger, Doug Wick, Lucy Fisher, Gillian Bohrer, and Erik Feig—for handling my work with such care and respect.
Mom, Frank, Ingrid, Karl, Frank Jr., Candice, McCall, Beth, Roger, Tyler, Trevor, Darby, Rachel, Billie, Fred, Granny, the Johnsons (both Romanian and Missourian), the Krausses, the Paquettes, the Fitches, and the Rydzes—for all your love. (I would never choose my faction before you. Ever.)
All the past-present-future members of YA Highway and Write Night, for being such thoughtful, understanding writer buddies. All the more experienced authors who have included me and helped me for the past few years. All the writers who have reached out to me on Twitter or e-mail for camaraderie. Writing can be a lonely job, but not for me, because I have you. I wish I could list you all. Mary Katherine Howell, Alice Kovacik, Carly Maletich, Danielle Bristow, and all my other non-writer friends, for helping me keep my head on straight.
All the Divergent fansites, for crazy-awesome internet (and real-life) enthusiasm.
My readers, for reading and thinking and squealing and tweeting and talking and lending and, above all, for teaching me so many valuable lessons about writing and life.
All of the people listed above have made this series what it is, and knowing you all has changed my life. I am so lucky.
I’ll say it one last time: Be brave.
SPECIAL THANKS
In the spring of 2012, fifty blogs helped spread their love for the DIVERGENT series by supporting the release of INSURGENT in a faction-based online campaign. Every participant was integral to the success of this series! Thank you to:
ABNEGATION: Amanda Bell (faction leader), Katie Bartow, Heidi Bennett, Katie Butler, Asma Faizal, Hafsah Faizal, Ana Grilo, Kathy Habel, Thea James, Julie Jones, and HD Tolson
AMITY: Meg Caristi, Kassiah Faul, and Sherry Atwell (faction leaders), Kristin Aragon, Emily Ellsworth, Cindy Hand, Melissa Helmers, Abigail J., Sarah Pitre, Lisa Reeves, Stephanie Su, and Amanda Welling
CANDOR: Kristi Diehm (faction leader), Jaime Arnold, Harmony Beaufort, Damaris Cardinali, Kris Chen, Sara Gundell, Bailey Hewlett, John Jacobson, Hannah McBride, and Aeicha Matteson
DAUNTLESS: Alison Genet (faction leader), Lena Ainsworth, Stacey Canova and Amber Clark, April Conant, Lindsay Cummings, Jessica Estep, Ashley Gonzales, Anna Heinemann, Tram Hoang, Nancy Sanchez, and Yara Santos
ERUDITE: Pam van Hylckama Vlieg (faction leader), James Booth, Mary Brebner, Andrea Chapman, Amy Green, Jen Hamflett, Brittany Howard, O’Dell Hutchison, Benji Kenworthy, Lyndsey Lore, Jennifer McCoy, Lisa Parkin, and Lisa Roecker
CREDITS
SYMBOL ART © 2012 RHYTHM & HUES DESIGN
COVER ART AND DESIGN BY JOEL TIPPIE
BONUS MATERIALS
Q&A WITH VERONICA ROTH
QUOTATIONS THAT INSPIRED DIVERGENT
VERONICA ROTH’S DIVERGENT PLAYLIST
WRITING TIPS FROM VERONICA ROTH
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
VERONICA ROTH TALKS ABOUT UTOPIAN WORLDS
FACTION NAMING WITH VERONICA ROTH
FACTION QUIZ
FACTION QUIZ RESULTS
FACTION MANIFESTOS
Q&A WITH VERONICA ROTH
Why do you feel people are naturally drawn to reading books about dystopian societies?
There are many reasons, I’m sure, but I think dystopian books are perfect for people who like to ask “what if?” but want to see their “what if?” questions played out in a world that has the same rules as our own (as opposed to paranormal or fantasy, in which the rules of the world—in terms of physics, or biology, or something—are a little different). There is also something extremely interesting about looking at the world now, reading about a possible future world, and imagining the steps
in between. It’s imaginative, yet grounded in the real world. I also love that the majority of the characters in dystopian and post-apocalyptic literature have a lot of agency—they take charge of their lives in environments that make it hard for them to do so, and I love reading about strong characters like that.
Where did the idea of DIVERGENT come from?
At the time that I came up with the idea for DIVERGENT (about five years ago), I was studying exposure therapy in the treatment of phobias. Exposure therapy involves confronting a person with the stimulus that scares them (heights, spiders, etc.) repeatedly, in a safe environment, until their brain rewires and they aren’t afraid of it anymore. This is where the Dauntless initiation process comes from—I wanted to write about a subculture of people who want to eradicate fear, and exposure therapy is how they go about doing it. I was also beginning to learn about social psychology and the Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures, which made me think about how malleable our supposedly strict moral codes become in the right conditions. Something that DIVERGENT grapples with.
But really, what got me to write it down was that I was driving somewhere and listening to a song and I just imagined someone jumping off a building, but not for a self-destructive reason. And I wondered why someone would do that, and the exposure therapy thing was the answer. And thus, Dauntless was born.
How and why did you start writing? And what inspires you?
I studied Creative Writing in college because it was the only thing I loved enough to do all the time. But I started writing because I decided I was too old to play pretend in the backyard. Then I found that I could create those imaginary worlds on the page. I think I was in fifth grade or sixth grade when I started.
What inspires me now … well, that’s a hard question! I try to follow my curiosity. I did that with DIVERGENT—I was curious about phobias and how to treat them, and learning about that helped me come up with the Dauntless initiation process. These days I’m curious about the northern lights and the social organization of ants. I have no idea how those things could make a book, but I don’t worry about it—I just learn about what interests me, and write about what I find my mind returning to, and see what happens.
Is there a character in DIVERGENT who you like especially? If so, why?
I love a lot of the characters, but one of my favorites is Tobias. To me he seems to have a rich off-screen life. I can imagine what he’s doing at any given moment, even if he’s not with Tris. I try to do that with all the characters, but for him, it has always come naturally. I also think he balances strength with vulnerability well.
What made you choose Chicago as the setting for your book?
It wasn’t a conscious decision, at first. I set the book in a city that felt familiar to me. What clued me in to the fact that it was Chicago was the trains—constantly running, all over the city, like the El in present-day Chicago. I wrote about the Dauntless riding the trains before I realized that the only place I have ever been where trains are aboveground and in constant motion is Chicago—that I had been writing about my favorite city without even knowing it. I have lived next to Chicago since I was five years old, so it is both familiar to me and unfamiliar, because I’ve never actually lived there. As I worked more and more of the city into the manuscript, I got the chance to rediscover my home, which was wonderful—there’s so much I don’t know about it! But my personal connections with the place aside, I also found it interesting to turn such a clean and organized place upside down.
If you had to choose, which faction would you join?
I’ve decided there’s a difference between figuring out which faction you have aptitude for and choosing which one you’d like to be in. No one fits into a faction perfectly, so determining your aptitude is extremely difficult. But as for choosing a faction, it’s all about priorities. Do you value happiness over justice? You might be Amity. How about honesty over kindness? Candor. And I would choose Dauntless, probably, because I believe in freedom and justice over comfort and safety. I might die during initiation. I’m almost sure of it, actually. I believe I would choose Dauntless not because of a thirst for freedom, although that’s certainly appealing, but because I think courage is so important. I would be compelled to choose them not by aptitude, necessarily, but by ideology. For the record, though, my favorite faction is Abnegation, so I might pick them if I was too afraid to choose Dauntless. I think the way they live is fascinating, and they, though not without their flaws, generally live beautiful, good lives.
This book is full of heart-pounding action, which begs the question, are you a thrill-seeker at heart?
Absolutely not. I am terrified of heights. And speed. And danger of any kind. Sometimes writing DIVERGENT gave me vertigo. Like in the zip line scene—even if you paid me a billion dollars, I would never do what Tris does in that scene. I don’t think I’m a coward, but I don’t like to take unnecessary risks. Also, I’m a writer, and as a group, we tend to be built for coffee shops, carpal tunnel syndrome, and comfortable chairs rather than jumping off buildings.
What characteristics did you keep in mind when you were coming up with the main character, Beatrice?
I don’t think I ever sat down and thought about how Beatrice was—I just had this sense of her, like I knew her. I did set myself a rule that was hard to follow, though: Beatrice is always the agent. That is, she’s always choosing, always acting, always moving the plot by her behavior. I don’t know that I succeeded in keeping that rule, but it was helpful for me when trying to create an active, rather than a passive or reactive, character.
How has your childhood influenced your writing?
My mother read to me every night when I was young, so that’s probably where my love of books began. And also, if I ever complained about being bored, my mother said, “Boredom is not allowed,” so I guess you could say that the rules of our house demanded that I be creative. It worked, though, because I used to go outside every day and invent these elaborate worlds and scenarios in my head, and when I grew too old for playing pretend, I started to write everything down instead. Nicely done, Mom.
What book(s) changed your life and why?
I could probably list books for days, so I’ll just list a few favorites: The Giver by Lois Lowry, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, the Animorphs series by K.A. Applegate, 1984 by George Orwell, the Bible, Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, and Juliet by Andras Visky (which is a play, but I think it still counts). Some have taught me about writing, but even if they didn’t, they all inspired me, challenged me, encouraged me, and guided me in different ways. I don’t think books have ever solved my problems or made my decisions for me, but they bring me out of myself and make me ask myself questions, and that’s life altering enough.
Do you think that you make wise or flawed decisions? Why?
I make both. Doesn’t everyone? Usually the flawed ones are decisions I think are wise but are really motivated by something else—pride, maybe, or selfishness—and the wise ones happen when I’m not paying attention, or at those brief moments I succeed at loving the people around me. To be honest, the flawed ones are probably more common. But I try to learn from them.
How do you get through a dark day?
For me, one of the worst things I can do on a bad day is withdraw from people—but it’s one of the easiest things for me to do. In the past few years I’ve been learning to rely on friends and family. Now, when my pride says “Deal with it yourself,” I try to say, “Screw that. I need help.” I have realized that there’s no shame in letting the people I love take care of me. Most of the time they do a better job at it than I even realize.
What thought or message would you put in a fortune cookie?
“Stop reading this. Eat the cookie and live your life.”
QUOTATIONS THAT INSPIRED DIVERGENT
VERONICA: This quote was actually integral to my discovery of Tris’s voice. I wanted to create a character who could and would de
liver that line, and Tris can and will. Her voice is clipped, direct, and strong, just like these lines.
“My will is mine … I shall not make it soft for you.”
—Agamemnon, Aeschylus
VERONICA: Sometimes I imagine Tris repeating this to herself during her initiation, over and over again.
“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
—Dune by Frank Herbert
VERONICA: This, I imagine, is what Tris’s enemies would say to her. And they would be wrong.
“Well, let her know the stubbornest of wills
Are soonest bended, as the hardest iron,
O’er-heated in the fire to brittleness,
Flies soonest into fragments, shivered through.”
—Antigone, Sophocles
VERONICA: A word of advice to the faction that causes so much trouble—and to every flawed human being.
“But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.”
—Galatians 5:15
VERONICA: These lines, I imagine, would inspire the people in Tris’s world to fight the good fight.
“Hold on to the world we all remember fighting for
There’s some strength left in us yet
Hold on to the world we all remember dying for
There’s some hope left in it yet
Arise and be
All that you dreamed.”
The Divergent Series Complete Collection Page 99