Cindy Crawford's Reviews > Insurgent

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

's review
May 26, 12

Read on May 25, 2012

** spoiler alert ** Second books in trilogies are tricky, and often they seem substantially longer than the first book. That's true for Insurgent. Overall, the book navigates the difficult second book well.

The action picks up right where it left off in Divergent, and most of Insurgent features Tris dealing with her guilt after her actions at the end of the first book. She lost both her parents, who died for (and maybe because of)her; she killed her friend Will while he was under the mind control drug. Throughout Insurgent she can't even hold a gun, and is practically suicidal, throwing herself into dangerous situations not so much to help others as to help herself--in death she can join her parents, or at least stop the pain of guilt.

We do get some answers in book two--we learn more about Tobias's parents, and more about Jeanine's motivations for her willingness to use mind-control and violence to identify the Divergents and to destroy Abnegation. We also, right at the very end, learn more about Tris's mother, and the secret that has been hidden from the factions. Turns out the area inside the wall, where the factions live, was created by humans in the past so there would be a safe and idyllic place for Divergents to live--human nature had nearly destroyed itself in the "real world." What's outside the wall is apparently whatever is left from that world. The book ends just as they discover this secret.

Since human nature didn't do so well within the wall, it will be interesting to see what is now outside the wall. Tris, Tobias, and what's left of the others, are sort of working together. Faction members have rebelled against their factions, the factionless are better organized than any faction (and lead by Tobias's mother), so book three is set up well.

The one thing that didn't always ring true in the book is the relationship between Tris and Tobias. They keep arguing and fighting, but them immediately forgive each other. I would have liked it better if they either didn't fight so much, or if their fights had lasted longer or had more impact on them. As it was, they often seemed to happen just to pile up more guilt on Tris.

But that's a minor quibble, and I really liked the book. Can't wait to see what happens next!

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