The Divergent Companion: The Unauthorized Guide to the Series

by Lois H. Gresh

Overview

The first companion guide to the blockbuster bestselling Divergent trilogy—soon to be a major motion picture

Written by the New York Times bestselling author of The Twilight Companion and The Hunger Games Companion, the book takes fans deeper into the post-apocalyptic world created by Veronica Roth—a dystopian Chicago in which humanity has organized itself into five factions, each with its own core value to uphold. At the age of sixteen, Beatrice Prior must choose to which one she will devote her life.

The Divergent Companion includes fascinating background facts about the action in all three books—the third book, Allegiant, publishes in October 2013—a revealing biography of the author, and amazing insights into the trilogy's major themes and features. It's everything fans have been hungering for since the very first book! This book is not authorized by Veronica Roth, Katherine Tegen Books, or anyone involved in the Divergent movie.

The Divergent Companion is a must-read and a terrific gift for the millions of fans both young and old—especially with the Summit Entertainment film version of Divergent, the first book in the trilogy, hitting theaters in March 2014.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250045102
Publisher:	St. Martins Press-3PL
Publication date:	02/18/2014
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.44(d)

About the Author

LOIS H. GRESH is the New York Times bestselling author of The Twilight Companion, The Hunger Games Companion, and more than twenty other books. She lives in New York.

Read an Excerpt

1
WHAT’S IN THIS BOOK?
 
 
Welcome to The Divergent Companion! In this book, you’ll learn all about the backbones of the Divergent world created by Veronica Roth. By now, you may have seen the movie, due in theaters from Summit Entertainment–Lions Gate in March 2014. Or you may be anticipating the Divergent film while reading the trilogy of novels for the third or fourth time.
Because this is a companion to the world of Divergent, I assume that you’ve already read the three books, Divergent, Insurgent, and Allegiant. Hence, I don’t tell you what you already know: the chronology of events, what characters explicitly say and do, and so forth. Instead, I fill in all the gaps and answer your questions about how this world might work and why things might happen as they do.
You’ll learn the answers to burning questions, such as:
Do the factions actually make sense? Do we have factions in the real world, and if so, what are they?
Are we all more Divergent than we think?
How might the serums and transmitters work? Are they at all realistic?
How far away are we in the real world to the genetic manipulations in Allegiant?
Is it possible to change an entire population and alter the way everybody thinks by toying with genes?
Are mirror neurons real, and do they make people think in a more divergent fashion?
What does creativity have to do with the Divergent?
How is Tris’s brain really wired?
Is it true, as Tris worries, that the size of our brain sections determines who we are and what we do, that our brain anatomy defines our entire personalities?
What is the Milgram experiment, and how does it tie in to the events of the Divergent trilogy?
How do the serums and neurotransmitters really work? Is all this possible?
How do the simulations really work? Are they possible?
How does a simulation induce fear in somebody?
Can two people be inside the same simulation at the same time?
and much more.
The Divergent film features Shailene Woodley in the role of Tris Prior and twenty-eight-year-old Theo James as Tobias/Four. At five feet eight inches, Shailene Woodley is taller than I imagined the tiny Tris, but remarkably, her face reminds me of how I envisioned Tris while reading the trilogy. She’s twenty-one years old and already has an impressive list of acting credentials. Academy Award–winner Kate Winslet, famous for her roles in movies such as Titanic with Leonardo DiCaprio, plays Jeanine Matthews, the leader of the Erudite faction. With a cold sharpness, she brings an edge to the character.
The author of the Divergent series, Veronica Roth, grew up in Barrington, Illinois, and now lives in Chicago with her husband, Nelson Fitch. She was born in 1988 and achieved phenomenal literary success at a very young age. Her work has won accolades such as New York Times Bestseller, USA Today Bestseller, Publishers Weekly Best Book, and School Library Journal Best Book. As of this writing, the first two novels in the series have sold more than three million copies.1
Now that the Divergent trilogy has come to a close, fans await news about Veronica Roth’s next project while eagerly reading her e-stories about Tobias/Four. In addition, you can settle back, flip to the next page, and start discovering all the gritty details behind the world of Divergent!
VERSIONS OF THE NOVELS REFERENCED IN THIS BOOK
Divergent. New York: HarperCollins, first paperback edition, 2011.
Insurgent. New York: HarperCollins, first hardcover edition, 2012.
Allegiant. New York: HarperCollins, first hardcover edition, 2013.

 
Copyright © 2014 by Lois H. Gresh