Divergent Chapter 16: It's a whole lotta nothing for twenty pages!

The readability of these chapters is pretty good, honestly. I know I gripe on the writing and how boring they are, but in terms of actual word flow-- it's really good. I just wanted to put that out there, because the problems I do have are strictly with the lack of proper plot and just general need to edit out superfluous details.

So right into it we go!


Tris has just left her mother behind after discovering her mother was a faction-transfer from Dauntless. Though previously this was earth-shattering for Tris, it's now pretty ho-hum and not particularly interesting. Probably because everything Tris touches turns to the equivalent of listening to the teacher from Ferris Bueller read the dictionary aloud for ten hours nonstop.

What would I have learned if I had been here when my mother was Dauntless? Maybe I wouldn't have broken Molly's nose. Or threatened Will's sister.

I mean, sure, Tris, but you're also a sixteen-year-old idiot so the jury's out on that.

I didn't know Tris guest-starred on Bob's Burgers!

Her and Al are sitting on his bed discussing their rankings and family, and then he does the slick arm-around-the-shoulder technique. The whole thing is actually hilariously awkward:

I am about to respond when he slides his arm across my shoulder. Suddenly I freeze, my cheeks hot.
I didn't want to be right about Al's feelings for me. But I was.
I do not lean into him. Instead, I sit forward so his arm falls away. Then I squeeze my hands together in my lap.

here's an actual recreation of what just happened.

Later there's a needlessly dramatic lunch scene in which everyone can tell that Tris lying about having chosen something in the aptitude test. That's right, they can somehow miraculously tell that Tris is lying about having chosen the knife to kill the dog because of body language:

"You're hiding something," [Christina] says. "You're fidgeting."
"What?"
"In Candor," says Al, nudging me with this shoulder. There. That feels normal. "We learn to read body language so we know when someone is lying or keeping something from us."

Let me again re-iterate my question: DID ANYONE FUCKING COPY EDIT THIS BOOK? 'In Candor' is not a completely sentence, and yet here we have it being presented as one so we can get this beautiful clusterfucknugget of a phrase.

Anyway, good news everyone! We can now completely base everything on body language and call people out using it! Doesn't matter that Tris wasn't from Candor so she wouldn't feel compelled to tell the truth nor be particularly awful at lying-- we get dramatic exposition in the form of body language because fuck you! That's why!

After a lot of boring preamble, the rankings go up, and Tris has placed sixth in faction transfers. Also worth noting (for some super gross happenings later on in the chapter), Peter is not first place; Edward is.

And because Tris is fucking Raven Baxter, she just mysteriously knows something bad will come from that.

I just had a vision of me finishing this chapter and it was wonderful.

Peter didn't say anything when the rankings went up, which, given his tendency to complain about anything that doesn't go his way, is surprising. [ ... ] That makes me feel even more uneasy. He can't possibly be satisfied with second place. Not Peter.

Turns out Tris maybe is Raven's long-lost sibling because this bullshit happens that nearly made me throw my book across the room:

Edward lies on the floor, clutching at his face. Surrounding his head is a halo of blood, and jutting between his clawing fingers is a silver knife handle. I recognize it as a butter knife from the dining hall. The blade is stuck in Edward's eye.

 Oh thank god, Tris, that you noted that the knife was a butter knife. That was exactly the detail missing from this horrifying incident! When I heard that he had a knife sticking out of his eye all I could think was-- but what kind!?

Seriously, this faction is horrifying. As far as I know (for the rest of this chapter), they all don't tell anyone what happened, because they are sure that nothing will be done about it, and the next day both Myra and Edward are gone, which means Al gets to stay for another phase of initiation.

There's some more foreshadowing to the plot that has yet to show up, and it made me laugh a bit harder than it should have. Please remember that this passage is immediately following them waking up in the middle of the night by one of their bunkmates getting a butter knife lodged into his eye:

Despite the depravity I see in Dauntless, though, I could not leave. It isn't only because the thought of living factionless, in complete isolation, sounds like a fate worse than death. It is because, in the brief moments that I have loved it here, I saw a faction worth saving. Maybe we can become brave and honorable again.

Roth can't seem to decide if she loves sentence fragments or run-ons, more, so she's having an affair with both of them.

yeah u heard me

Yeah, Tris, you could wake up with a knife in your eye or fall off the edge of a chasm here, but Stockholm Syndrome's a helluva drug and ew you might have to work at a menial labour job! So icky! Better stay here with the hot tattooed guy.

The 'brave and honorable' bit is referencing Will discussing how Dauntless used to have a manifesto about being courageous:

"We believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another."

Neville Longbottom founded the Dauntless faction. #Confirmed