25 book adaptations that surprisingly lived up to the books they’re based on

Divergent

Though the film series takes a deep dive after the first installment, the 2004 adaptation of Veronica Roth’s Divergent did an admirable job of replicating the book. Set in a dystopian society where teenagers must choose from four different factions based on their personality traits, fans follow Tris, a girl who doesn’t fit so neatly into any one faction. She’s what’s called Divergent, but that’s something she’ll need to keep secret if she plans to survive.

The series becomes more complicated as it continues, but sadly, the film versions of the book’s sequels, Insurgent and Allegiant, decidedly do not live up to their book counterparts. In fact, Allegiant was never even seen to completion—the second portion of the film was never released, leaving the series incomplete.

The adaptation of the first book, on the other hand, does a solid job of bringing Roth’s story to the screen. It captures the aesthetic of Roth’s world well, and the visualizations of the four factions and their members are spot on—particularly when it comes to Dauntless, the daring and dangerous faction that Tris joins.

Casting Shailene Woodley as Tris and Theo James as Four was also a smart move, as the two of them portray their characters and the romance between them seamlessly. As far as the plot goes, it doesn’t stray far from Roth’s original story, something that’s always appreciated when it comes to bestsellers with large fandoms. The most disappointing thing for Divergent fans was simply that the first movie’s potential didn’t carry over to the later installments.