Insurgent

Insurgent is the second book in the Divergent series by Veronica Roth. It is every bit as action-packed as the first book and continues to follow the life of Beatrice "Tris" Prior and her place in their world.

The Erudite faction has risen up and taken over. Through the use of simulation serum, they've managed to override the individual thoughts of people's brains in Dauntless and turned them into lethal fighting machines; that is all but the divergent.

The divergent can't controlled by the Erudite leader Jeanine Matthews, and until now, were able to hide their identity from the rest of the world. For some reason, it is not only dangerous to the higher ranking members of society to be divergent, it is a right to the city as the anomaly has roots that lead back to secrets of their inception.

Hinging on the morning Tris wakes up to her closest friends marching in robotic lines and she's still aware, she realizes what's going on. A civil war of sorts has begun in her former faction of the Abnegation and it's with this bloody battle that secrets are revealed not only in her family, but in her friends. There are more divergent members of society than Tris knew, and now it's obvious who they all are.

Tris and Four work to reverse the effects of the Erudite's leaders attempts to control society. They meet both successes and failures along their journey, and together they cross important trust bridges in each other. Seeking safety in the Amity compound, Tris seeks to unlock the secrets that are tearing apart the life she knows.

This books reveals a lot of the characters back stories to help the reader understand their current roles. For example, Beatrice's mother was from Dauntless and was divergent - who knew? A secret well-kept Tris's entire life. Tobias aka Four was an abused child which explains some of his reserved and very complicated character traits. Families are exposed, people are torn apart, and wickedness abounds as members of the society choose to pay their loyalties to Jeanine Matthews or Evelyn, Tobias suddenly not dead mother that lives among the Factionless.

Insurgent is a book of choices, of defining roles, of acts of valor.

But - I do have one complaint here, and I'm paraphrasing from a wonderful blog called "The Book Smugglers": I am not a fan of these protracted angsty love stories. It’s comedic, because of the chastity; it’s frustrating, because SO MUCH TIME is spent on these exact. same. exchanges. repeated ad nauseam – meanwhile, there’s a WAR going on, people! Needless to say, characterization in this novel and the focus of so much of the book on Tris and Tobias’s romance kind of bummed me out.

But overall, I would still say this novel was a good read. It moves with a brisk pace and in the end, a highly improbable, but not so insane it's completely unbelievable, plot twist sparks the reader's imagination propelling one into the final book in the series: Allegiant.

As compelling as the first book, with a fast moving plot and interesting characters and situations, plus a few surprising plot twists!

A Unique Dystopia | Review of ‘Insurgent’ (Divergent #2)

Tension driven and plot driven, this novel captures the drive inside the characters and their dynamics[...]

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Insurgent picked up right where Divergent left off, on the train moving away from Dauntless headquarters with Tris still haunted by what she had done during the simulation.

The story moves deeper into the revolution, building with more characters and more layers with each chapter. Tris and Tobias become closer but eventually their differing views on who to trust and what is right and wrong start to come between them. Thought they fight to stay together and not let their differences overcome them, it becomes extremely difficult and at many points later in the book looks as if their relationship is doomed.

This book captured me the way the first one did. We learn more about our characters and about Tobias's parents. Nothing is as it seems, which isn't surprising considering the curtains Tris and Tobias began to pull back about the revolution at the end of Divergent. You might think you have the gist of what is going on with regards to the government overthrow that Jeanine wants to occur, but you're probably wrong. There is a huge twist at the end of the book that will leave you dying for the final installment of the trilogy.

You won't be disappointed.

I give this book a definite 5 stars.


Happy reading!

This series gets way better in the second book. A ton of action, much like Mockingbird in The Hunger Game series it because packed with battles and lots of militia being formed. The "shocking" ending didn't leave me dying to keep reading the way Catching Fire did.