First up: Divergent

The main character lives in dystopian (SHOCK) Chicago-- although they never really say in the book that it's Chicago, it's in the description-- where everyone is forced to choose between five "factions" to live in for the rest of their lives. The factions were created to eliminate the reasons for a "warring world" or "inclination toward evil." There's Amity, the friendly, for those who blamed aggression for the world's "disarray;" Erudite, the intelligent, for those who blamed ignorance; Candor, the honest, for those who blamed duplicity; Abnegation, the selfless, for those who blamed selfishness; and Dauntless, the brave, for those who blamed cowardice. At sixteen each citizen gets to choose a faction and live in it for the rest of their lives. If they choose a faction different from that of their family (i.e. the main character is Abnegation-born but chooses Dauntless), they are basically not allowed to show affection toward their family anymore because the motto is "faction over blood." Some parents would also consider it a betrayal if their child chose a faction other than the one they were raised in.

Anyway, it turns out it's really difficult to keep up this system, because most people do not exhibit only one quality, but are a combination of them all. Plus, if the wrong factions start working together, it could be disastrous [i.e. if the smart people use the brave people as soldiers for their own selfish war...].

You may be wondering [you probably aren't], what's "Divergent?" Well, that's kind of the whole point. Divergent are the ones who don't fit one specific faction, and are therefore a threat to the system because they have reason to rebel against it. This is a problem.

Meanwhile, the main character must go through an initiation to become a member of the Dauntless, which requires fighting, jumping on/off trains/buildings, facing her worst fears in simulations, and trying not to get killed in her sleep by her nemesis Peter, or thrown out and turned "factionless" by the villain of the book, appropriately named Eric. Not to skip over her developing relationship with another Abnegation-turned-Dauntless, which is actually a main focus even though there's so much else going on.

Probably my favorite thing about this book is that it's not trying to be The Hunger Games. It's completely different, just in the same genre. The main character is a little Katniss-like, but she's a lot more intentional about being brave [like, she has to remind herself that she can't be weak], and a lot more clueless about other things, because she wants to prove that she belongs in Dauntless and that's all she wants to focus on. Also the books are similarly gory.

I guess that's a little more than the basic idea. The next one doesn't come out until next May and I'm itching for it NOW.