Treasured Thursdays: Most Treasured Dystopian

Treasured Thursday is a weekly event created by Touya over at The Reader's Garden that is all about our most treasured. I'm hosting it here now, for those of you who are interested in joining me. This week our topic is our most treasured dystopian novel.

This is very hard for me. Very, very hard. There are so many wonderful titles in this genre, it is nearly impossible to pick just one.  This one, though, really hooked me from the very beginning. 

In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

I dare you to read this book and not fall in love with it. The suspense keeps you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end and I loved every minute of it. Roth spins an intriguing tale you can't walk away from.  The characters are authentic and interesting, the story is jam packed full of action and there's even a little romance thrown in. What's not to love? These are just a few reasons why Divergent is my most treasured dystopian novel. 

Now, Mel has read a lot more dystopian novels than I have, if only because my reading list is longer than a football field and I have no time-to-read in my life, but this is probably my most favorite genre ever. I'm almost glad I'm just getting into it, because then I'd be having issues picking one. But at the moment? It's simple to me.

For those of you who haven't read it, here's the summary:

What if you knew exactly when you were going to die? 

Thanks to modern science, every newborn has become a ticking genetic time bomb--males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out.

When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape--to find her twin brother and go home.

But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden's eccentric  father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant she is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limited time she has left.

I am a DeStefan (the "following" name; Lauren said on her Facebook she wanted her fans to call themselves 'DeStefans' ;]), and proud of it. This book is the creepiest thing I've ever read. And I'm not even finished! You know it's good when from the first chapter I decided this was a favorite of mine. 

It has everything; a female lead that isn't a whiny, a storyline that isn't totally ridiculous, a male that isn't completely overbearing, and a goal-in-mind that makes you root for Rhine and Gabriel, and hell, I even had a little hope for Linden...because I am an awful person like that.

This is definitely my most treasured dystopian- I can't wait to finish it!