Insurgent by Veronica Roth

#2 in the Divergent trilogy
Pubished May 1, 2012 by HarperTeen
4 stars

Goodreads Review
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.

New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth's much-anticipated second book of the dystopian Divergent series is another intoxicating thrill ride of a story, rich with hallmark twists, heartbreaks, romance, and powerful insights about human nature.

Review:  Insurgent is more like 3.5, but I'm going to round up. While there was some interesting development toward the ending, Insurgent sadly has a bad case of middle book syndrome. It felt like a transition book, not a unique story. 


My biggest problem with Insurgent is there's absolutely no refresher on who people are and what they're doing at the end of Divergent.  We literally just jump straight into the story without any background.  This would be fine if I had just read Divergent, but for the many people who read the book a year ago when it first came out, it is very difficult to remember all of the side characters.  I kept thinking, "Wait, who was that again?" and so I really had a hard time connecting to the characters.

Insurgent moved a lot slower than Divergent.  I got half way through the book before anything with the main story arc actually happened.  Insurgent got too hung up on the relationship angst, which was handled much better in Divergent.  When it comes to dystopian I prefer more action/science books, and Insurgent focused way too much on Tris's inner monologue.  Also the transitions between scenes were extremely choppy and hard to follow. There seemed to be a lack of editing in terms of continuity and flow.  This became more noticeable toward the end of the book as the action got more intense and thus made the story hard to follow.

However I still really enjoyed this book.  Some of the action scenes are great and I really like the concept of trying to force people into certain social constructs and how that society will ultimately crumble because all people are really divergent.  But overall the parts that I did enjoy weren't enough to draw me in to the story and ultimately I just didn't care as much as I did in Divergent.