Insurgent (Divergent, #2) in Multiculturalism in YA,Fantasy, Sci FI,Paranormal and fun books ;p

Dec 01, 2011 Ashley rated it liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I guess I prefer Tris' Chicago when there is a greater focus on one of the factions and not all of them. I found the emphasis on who belongs in what faction and "oh today you're being such a Stiff" jibing really distracting. And it also didn't make much sense to me that EVERYONE should fit in one of these five very narrow factions. For some reason, this issue didn't bother me during Divergent but since everyone kept talking about how so-and-so TOTALLY belonged in this faction, it really got me t ...more

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Jun 09, 2012 Diana Pinguicha rated it it was ok

Let’s start with one thing: I adored Divergent. I thought it was well-written and interesting and I was glued to the book from start to finish. Then, with really high expectations, I read Insurgent. Like its predecessor, I couldn’t put it down… but it was for the wrong reasons, mainly being that I wanted to read something else.

Insurgent continues the story of Tris, who in Divergent left her faction, Abnegation, to join the Dauntless. In case you don’t remember the previous book’s ending, I’ll su Let’s start with one thing: I adored Divergent. I thought it was well-written and interesting and I was glued to the book from start to finish. Then, with really high expectations, I read Insurgent. Like its predecessor, I couldn’t put it down… but it was for the wrong reasons, mainly being that I wanted to read something else.

Insurgent continues the story of Tris, who in Divergent left her faction, Abnegation, to join the Dauntless. In case you don’t remember the previous book’s ending, I’ll sum it up for you: the Erudite put all Dauntless under an attack simulation and all but eradicated Abnegation. Tris is on the run with her love interest Four, her brother, Four’s father who used to beat him up as a kid and Tris’s nemesis Peter, who hung her from a chasm and felt her tiny assets. They’re heading to the Amity compound because it’s supposed to provide shelter.

In Divergent, I liked Tris. She wasn’t pretty, but she had spunk and liked to come out on top of things. However, in Insurgent, she was just flat-out annoying. Risking her life for stupid reasons, not caring at all because she’s wallowing in depression over her parents’ deaths (ok, I will cut the author some slack here—it was a pretty awful situation and Tris was allowed some moments of misery). Point is, all other characters were sucking it up and she wasn’t. And when she finally realizes she’s been wrong about risking her life (after Four practically threw her a well-deserved ultimatum), she gets even more annoying. I really grew to dislike the main character as this second book went on and it’s a shame, because Tris showed so much promise in Divergent.

Sadly, the other characters aren’t much better either. Four became something else and while I’ll give him a reprieve because Tris was acting so recklessly, I didn’t get most of the choices he made. And Peter… I liked (not really, but he was a consistent character) Peter because he was, as I will bluntly put it, a jerk and remained a jerk no matter what. What Veronica Roth does with him in this book is just… it’s astonishingly out-of-character. Sure, the author tried to explain it, but I just didn’t buy it. Why would a wonderfully-consistently evil character suddenly do something good because he “owed” the other person? He was just a great jerk, he should have remained one. But I suppose not everyone shared my love for characters who are awful people and Peter’s development does add room for something else in the next and final book, so I took Veronica’s choice with a grain of salt.

As for the rest of the supporting cast… Caleb’s developments are somewhat interesting, but we don’t get near enough time with him—or with any other secondary character, in fact. Jeanine had me interested in the first book, but in Insurgent, none of my questions were answered. Sure, she wanted to hide something from the entire city, but why? Marcus is equally left in the background, except when he conveniently has information that will change everything. Tori, who was so cool in Divergent, acts pretty stupid at the end. I guess the characters I liked in the previous installment weren’t carried over very well into this book.

I’d love to say it’s better plot-wise, but, for me, it wasn’t. The book is about Tris’s journey to find out why the Erudite did what they did, with tons of action in the middle. And that’s it. The plot and its twists and turns made little to no sense to me. Some of them I felt were there just for the sake of being there, just there for the sake of conflict. If certain parts of the book had been cut (the part at the Amity compound was close to useless and so was Tris’s little detour into the Erudite compound), it’d have been better off.

The faction system is also awful. I could live with it in the first one because it didn’t really delve into politics, but as Veronica Roth tried to give her world some depth, she made me wonder how the hell the system managed to work. It needed a lot more effort and development for it to make sense and while it didn’t show in Divergent, it shows in Insurgent. Which is, again, a shame.

Then, the writing. Insurgent reads as though it’s been written by a totally different person. Scenes are often of the action-reaction kind and I’d have appreciated a little bit of flamboyancy here and there. Tris’s feelings are almost mechanically described and the action scenes seem to follow some sort of formula. I was really let down about the blandness of Veronica’s writing in Insurgent.

All in all… If you liked Divergent, then you should read Insurgent because I know you’ll be itching to. Just don’t expect it to be as good as its predecessor, because it isn’t. I do sincerely hope Veronica goes back to Divergent’s magic in the third installment and, despite not liking this second volume, I will definitely read the third.
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May 30, 2012 Sasha rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, dystopia

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I’m always up for reading a good dystopian novel, and Veronica Roth’s Divergent series has essentially defined the YA dystopian genre for me. Insurgent doesn’t waste any time, dropping us right into the events immediately following the cliffhanger of the first book. We see the aftermath of the dramatic and traumatizing events of the first book, exploring Tris’ emotions as she deals with the consequences of killing someone for the first time—a friend, at that. Tris is broken, and we see that cons I’m always up for reading a good dystopian novel, and Veronica Roth’s Divergent series has essentially defined the YA dystopian genre for me. Insurgent doesn’t waste any time, dropping us right into the events immediately following the cliffhanger of the first book. We see the aftermath of the dramatic and traumatizing events of the first book, exploring Tris’ emotions as she deals with the consequences of killing someone for the first time—a friend, at that. Tris is broken, and we see that constantly throughout this book even as she struggles to stay strong for the benefit of her cause and the people she cares about. While I understood why Tris was so fearful and grief-stricken, at the same time a part of me wished that she would grow up and either seek help in the people she cared about or come to terms with what she had done. Instead Tris spends a majority of the book in a sort of petulant, self-induced closed-off space where she isolates herself from her friends. I know that Tris is grieving, but good god girl, get a grip! It was really difficult to read some of this book because of how much Tris annoyed me at times.

That being said, the dynamic between Tris and Four, seemingly so easy in the first book, meets its first real speedbump in Insurgent, which for some reason made me root for them even more. I feel like Tris and Four are two people who truly understand each other because they are so similar in personality, and that reflects in their relationship struggles, because both of them are stubborn. I feel like we got a lot more insight into the two characters through their interactions with each other, which I appreciated greatly. I just hope that Tris is less whiny and Four more open in the next book, else we will still see the same relationship struggles continue in the future.

We get to delve a lot more deeply into the history of the factions in this book, learning a lot more about the politics going on and the tensions between (and within!) the factions themselves. We also learn a bit more about the factionless. Throughout all of this, once again we learn that what we’ve initially learned about the Divergent world is not at all what it seems. There’s a lot more detail as to how this dystopia became a reality, as Roth divulges to the reader much about the history and origins of factions, and why they have such a tight hold on the contemporary society that Tris and her friends are a part of. All of this information alone is fascinating enough to carry the story through the various slower parts that otherwise I would have found dull.

A wonderful expansion on the world portrayed in Divergent, Insurgent provides the reader with both interesting character development for both Tris and Four, a compelling relationship between the two of them, and the intriguing backstory of how the different factions came into being. All of this, despite some flaws in pacing and character portrayal, serves to make a strong second book in what is sure to be an incredible trilogy.
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