Friday 4 May 2012

Insurgent review

Insurgent
Veronica Roth
May 1st 2012
HarperCollins Children's Books


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.



*Bits from Divergent will most definitely be spoiled, so DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T READ DIVERGENT. And if you haven't, rectify that IMMEDIATELY.*


Well. Wow. Just wow. I never really thought that it was possible for Insurgent to be able to live up to Divergent, and though I can't really properly compare the two because I didn't reread Divergent, I think it impressed me just as much as Divergent did. And, you'll be glad to know, it didn't suffer from second book syndrome at all (in my opinion), though it was setting up a lot of what's going to happen in the third book. It still managed to carry it's own though, which was good because it's annoying when a second book just doesn't really do anything. Which I guess is why I try and avoid trilogies quite  a lot these days because they're not all up to Divergent's standards. I guess it's also why I don't really read that many dystopia's apart from the main one's really. Because I'm so used to them being this good, or maybe I'm just not willing to let other series's into my life. Or maybe I just don't like dystopia that much unless it's done this well!


I loved the direction that the story was taken to, and the fact that it's just been drawn out into a much bigger scale than the first one. And I really, really cannot believe that I'm going to have to wait for a whole YEAR until book three comes out, because I'm telling you now that was a pretty evil ending, but I'm hoping book 3 will be like this one in that it starts pretty much exactly where the last one ended. Another thing I loved was getting to see more about each of the factions we didn't really get to see much of before, like Amity and Candor. And I still think that I would be in Amity if I had to pick a faction. Or maybe Erudite. I also really liked the fact there wasn't really anyone definitively in the right or wrong. Nothing is black and white even if Tris sees it as being so, and it was really interesting to see how all the different factions took what was happening to them - and how they retaliated to that. Also, there was a lot of the factionless in this book, and it was great to see more about them too. I loved the twist at the end!


One of the things I'm looking forward to most in book three is learning more about the world outside of Chicago. We get a vague idea right at the end of the book, and the feeling that it's going to be really important in book 3. I seriously cannot wait to see what's she's going to do with the set up and how it's going to be woven into the story, or even who or what the main antagonist is going to be in the third book, and how it's going to work with what's already happened. I honestly cannot speculate at this point because I'm pretty sure all of my ideas are going to be wrong.


Tris was also really interesting in this book, and we got to see a lot more of her, like, personality-wise. I guess that doesn't really make sense, but what I mean is that she learns a lot more about herself in this book, and what she's really like as a person, and she's still one of my favourite characters in YA, I think. I like the person that she's becoming as much I liked the person she was in the first book, and her character development is really great. I love that she's so dedicated to what she wants to do, even if it means that she's betraying the one's who love and trust her most. I love that her loyalties lied more to her dead parents than her boyfriend, as lovely as Four is. Her emotional turmoil in this book was also really great, because I was worried that she was just going to forget about killing Will, but she didn't and her guilt was so real and palpable. I guess I was just worried about that because Will's death affected me way more than her parents, probably because it was Tris who killed him. Her inner reflection on that was brilliant, and even though she cried a lot, it wasn't just for nothing. She was under serious pressure. It also made me respect Christina a whole lot more, and I liked Christina a lot anyway. 


Four was really great in this book, too. I can't really imaging Four not being great. But I also loved the fact that not everything was perfectly smooth between them, because you know me and sappy couples. I just need to have a bucket on me. Also, I think for the purpose of the story and helping Tris fully grow into herself as a person, there needs to some kind of friction between them. Besides, it really adding in moving the story along, and made me want to read the book even quicker to find out what was going to happen not just overall in the story, but between them. Though my main concern was with the main plot, and I didn't really even notice the absence of Four in some places for how intense it was.

Insurgent is an incredible and completely worthy follow up to an amazing debut, and creates a whole new aspect to the story that brings in onto a much bigger scale than the first book. If this is anything to go by, I'm going to need to seriously prepare myself for book 3. Because it is going to be immense.

5 comments:

  1. Glad to her that you enjoyed it! We went to see Veronica Roth a couple nights ago, and she read a bit from INSURGENT. (We blogged about it.) She was a hit that night, and INSURGENT seems like a real winner with readers.

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  2. Literally just finished reading Insurngent...like ten minutes ago. Wow! I loved it, and your thoughts on it...gosh, a whole year to book three now. Gar!!!

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  3. This is a really good review!! One of my favourites that I've read actually. I think you really summed up Tris well, I liked that she had more loyalty to her parents as well but I didn't really think about it until I read your review! I really loved Four in this as well, and how their relationship progressed...basically just loved the whole thing!

    The Cait Files

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  4. Can someone please explain the ending for me? I was not expecting that at all and there are bits of that video that confuse me.

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  5. I love Four and of course your review!:)I expected the ending, because of various small hints Veronica Roth dropped in the course of the story, but it was great nevertheless

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