Book Review: Insurgent by Veronica Roth

 

One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.
Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so. (Description from amazon.com).

I admit that I pre-ordered Insurgent and had it delivered to my Kindle on the day that it was released. (May 1, 2012.)  I tried to read it while on vacation the day after it came out, but I didn't remember the story enough and did not have an Internet connection to even be able to find a summary somewhere. Insurgent starts exactly where Divergent finished and Veronica Roth did not do much in the first few chapters to remind you of the story.  Not having another book to read this weekend, I decided that I was going to re-read Divergent and immediately read Insurgent. Worked out great.

Divergent was one of my favorite books that I read in 2011. It really was the perfect YA dystopian. So I was really looking forward to the sequel. I have to say I was a little disappointed. Maybe it was me or the dreaded SBS (second book slump). It took half of the book for the story to really get started. There are a lot of plot twists and new characters that had me a little confused at times. The good news is that the author did not include a love triangle, but the relationship between the two main characters, Tris and Tobias (Four) was practically non-existent. I was looking forward to a little more relationship development between them.

That all being said, if you were a fan of Divergent you should read Insurgent.  The premise is so fascinating. Can you really have people fit themselves into one faction of society with one singular
virtue? Probably not. Veronica Roth does a great job exploring this, but I think Insurgent (which has a huge cliffhanger ending by the way) was just a filler for everything to be explained in the final book. Which I will read. Because I still want to know.