Twelve YA authors write an essay on an aspect of Veronica Roth's Divergent trilogy, talking about a variety of topics such as the way in which the factions map to psychological classifications, whether honesty is truly the best policy in the world of the series, and the biology of fear.

Though this book definitely falls under the definition of "literary criticism," these are not the stuffy sort of essays you might think of when you hear the term (personally, I don't, but then I was an English major and classify myself as Divergent, but mostly Erudite). These authors investigate the books from all sorts of point of views, but make it accessible and interesting reading. I really enjoyed essays that looked at the science of fear or the psychology of the factions or even the one that tried to map where each of the faction headquarters are in relation to the current city of Chicago. The writers who contribute to this book clearly enjoyed the books as stories, and I never got the feeling that they were trying to hard to interpret things - they're just continuing their enjoyment through their explorations. I would easily recommend this to teens (and adults) who can't get enough of the series - and who knows, maybe they'll find a new author to try! ( )