Veronica Roth’s bestselling book, Divergent, is coming to the big screen on March 21 thanks to Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment. Shailene Woodley plays Tris, with Theo James as her romantic interest, Four. Kate Winslet, Miles Teller, and Zoe Kravitz are all projected to play significant characters as well.

Divergent is the first installment in Roth’s dystopian trilogy and has been compared to the popular Hunger Games series. There is speculation as to whether or not the Divergent series will be able to compete with Hunger Games at the box office, but it is projected to do well due to the large existing fan base for the novels.

The Divergent series is set in a dystopian society that is split into five factions based on basic virtues: Abnegation, standing for selflessness; Amity, for kindness and peacefulness; Candor, for honesty; Erudite, for intelligence; and Dauntless, for bravery. Each year on Choosing Day, every sixteen-year-old must choose which faction to join based on an aptitude test taken before the ceremony. Each child can choose whether to stay in their family’s faction or transfer to another faction, but leaving their faction will mean permanent separation from their families.

Protagonist Beatrice Prior was born into Abnegation, but never quite felt like she belonged. When her aptitude test results are inconclusive, she learns that she is Divergent; an extremely rare and dangerous result that indicates an aptitude for multiple factions.

Beatrice approaches Choosing Day with apprehension. When the time comes, she follows her gut and transfers to Dauntless and is shocked when her brother transfers to Erudite. She tries to adapt quickly to her new faction by adopting the name “Tris”, but is met with much disdain by her fellow transfers.

Dauntless initiation training is brutal, and Tris excels despite the efforts of some of her peers to eliminate her. Her friendship with one of her training leaders, Four, develops into a romance for the rest of the series. Once she gets past initiation, the true story line of the series starts to unfold. Many plot twists and turns are presented in the next two books, as the greater plot line is revealed.

Divergent was published in April 2011 and landed on the New York Times children’s chapter books best seller list, less than a month later, at number six. It remained on this list for 11 weeks and went on to spend 39 weeks on the children’s paperback best seller list in 2012, where it reached number one. Book sales of Divergent and Insurgent, the second book in the trilogy, have a combined total of over five million copies and comprise the most successful e-book sales for publisher, HarperCollins.

Insurgent was published in May 2012, and won favorite young adult fantasy and science Fiction, as well as best author of 2012 in Goodreads' Choice Awards. The second installment of the Divergent trilogy was also nominated for teen book of the year and author of the year at the Children’s Choice Book Awards.

Allegiant, the third and final installment of the trilogy, was published October 2013. It is the only novel in the series written from both Tris’ and Four’s point of view, which provides a new perspective for the story.

The whole series is full of action, romance, tests of friendship and betrayal. It is a gripping and intriguing story appropriate for teens and adults. I recommend this book series to teens, anyone who loves a good dystopian fantasy and people looking for the next “it” series. All three books have been picked up for movie deals, so the trilogy is sure to transfer its success from page to screen.