Insurgent

Insurgent by Veronica Roth (Fair warning, this is the sequel to Divergent, and if you don't want Divergent spoiled, please do not read the following.)

I don't really want to say too much about Insurgent one way or the other as I'm still unsure of what to make of it.

Insurgent picks up right where Divergent leaves off and we're still tumbling through a revolution with Tris as our focal point. I am a little annoyed with Insurgent because it had one of those awful campy moments where a side character kind of goes, 'LOL INSURGENT. This is how we get the name of the book in here.' And main character obligingly responds, 'Yeah, that's cool.' And done. Book title.

Moving on.

The struggle I'm having with Insurgent is that Tris does a lot and the rest of the world is reacting or almost waiting for her to do things. When she's kind of removed from the action, her opinions are still drastically taken into consideration. AND she seems also adamant on ignoring what she's accomplished. And only (SPOILER) when her life is threatened FOR REAL, as in a danger shes not going to escape at all, she suddenly values her life again. In about a five second epiphany about everyone who's died for her is really encouraging her to live for them.

However, I do like how fraught and haunted she is by Will's death and also how she manages to begin the process of overcoming it. I enjoy how she continues to weigh each decision and can consider the perspectives of other factions. I do think it was incredibly wise of her to distrust Evelyn immediately.

I also like how the author has not included a love triangle while romance with Four (Tobias) is there, it doesn't stop her or hinder her. Otherwise this story would be a little too close to Hunger Games for my taste.

I do wish that there were more Divergents figuring things out and acting upon it so there was less of a Tris band wagon, but there's still hope for the third book.

Overall, I obscenely enjoyed Insurgent even if Tris got a little angsty sometimes. I thought it was hilarious when she was drugged at the Amity compound and also how accurate her resentment towards any serums became.

I also like how she wrote off Candor as useless. It feels accurate based on everything that transpired in Divergent and Insurgent.