Veronica Roth - Divergent Series

Divergent first published in hardback in the USA by HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. in 2011 Divergent first published in paperback in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2011 Insurgent first published in hardback in the USA by HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. in 2012 Insurgent first published in paperback in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2012 Allegiant first published in hardback in the USA by HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. in 2013 Allegiant first published in hardback and paperback in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2013 This edition published in 2013

HarperCollins Children’s Books

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Published by HarperCollins Publishers 2014

Copyright © Veronica Roth 2014

Divergent cover photography © Shutterstock ; cover design copyright © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

Insurgent cover photography © Corbis (girl, landscape); Eliz Huseyin (burning leaves, sky); Shutterstock (textures); cover design copyright © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

Allegiant cover photography © Shutterstock (road, sky); Eliz Huseyin (girl); cover design copyright © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

Free Four cover photography © Shutterstock (road, sky); cover design copyright © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

The Transfer cover photography © Shutterstock (road, sky); cover design copyright © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

Veronica Roth asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780007554812, 9780007550180, 9780007550173, 9780062300805

Ebook Edition © 2014 ISBN: 9780007554812

Version: 2016-08-26

Contents

Cover

Title Page DIVERGENT Series (books 1-3) plus FREE FOUR, THE TRANSFER and WORLD OF DIVERGENT Veronica Roth

Copyright

Divergent Series (Books 1-3)

Free Four: A Divergent Story

The Transfer: A Divergent Story

The World of Divergent: The Path to Allegiant

Back Ads

About the Author

Also by Veronica Roth

About the Publisher

Divergent

Insurgent

Allegiant

To my mother,

who gave me the moment when Beatrice realizes how strong

her mother is and wonders how she missed it for so long

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chapter Thirty-Four

Chapter Thirty-Five

Chapter Thirty-Six

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Acknowledgments

THERE IS ONE mirror in my house. It is behind a sliding panel in the hallway upstairs. Our faction allows me to stand in front of it on the second day of every third month, the day my mother cuts my hair.

I sit on the stool and my mother stands behind me with the scissors, trimming. The strands fall on the floor in a dull, blond ring.

When she finishes, she pulls my hair away from my face and twists it into a knot. I note how calm she looks and how focused she is. She is well-practiced in the art of losing herself. I can’t say the same of myself.

I sneak a look at my reflection when she isn’t paying attention—not for the sake of vanity, but out of curiosity. A lot can happen to a person’s appearance in three months. In my reflection, I see a narrow face, wide, round eyes, and a long, thin nose—I still look like a little girl, though sometime in the last few months I turned sixteen. The other factions celebrate birthdays, but we don’t. It would be self-indulgent.

“There,” she says when she pins the knot in place. Her eyes catch mine in the mirror. It is too late to look away, but instead of scolding me, she smiles at our reflection. I frown a little. Why doesn’t she reprimand me for staring at myself?

“So today is the day,” she says.

“Yes,” I reply.

“Are you nervous?”

I stare into my own eyes for a moment. Today is the day of the aptitude test that will show me which of the five factions I belong in. And tomorrow, at the Choosing Ceremony, I will decide on a faction; I will decide the rest of my life; I will decide to stay with my family or abandon them.

“No,” I say. “The tests don’t have to change our choices.”

“Right.” She smiles. “Let’s go eat breakfast.”

“Thank you. For cutting my hair.”

She kisses my cheek and slides the panel over the mirror. I think my mother could be beautiful, in a different world. Her body is thin beneath the gray robe. She has high cheekbones and long eyelashes, and when she lets her hair down at night, it hangs in waves over her shoulders. But she must hide that beauty in Abnegation.

We walk together to the kitchen. On these mornings when my brother makes breakfast, and my father’s hand skims my hair as he reads the newspaper, and my mother hums as she clears the table—it is on these mornings that I feel guiltiest for wanting to leave them.

The bus stinks of exhaust. Every time it hits a patch of uneven pavement, it jostles me from side to side, even though I’m gripping the seat to keep myself still.

My older brother, Caleb, stands in the aisle, holding a railing above his head to keep himself steady. We don’t look alike. He has my father’s dark hair and hooked nose and my mother’s green eyes and dimpled cheeks. When he was younger, that collection of features looked strange, but now it suits him. If he wasn’t Abnegation, I’m sure the girls at school would stare at him.