Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Note: This review contains no spoilers of Insurgent, but may contain spoilers of the first book in the series, Divergent, a review of which can be found here. 

Insurgent (Divergent #2) by Veronica Roth

Release Date: May
Pages: 525
Format: Hardcover
Source: Won
Publisher: Harper Collins
Also by this Author: Divergent (Divergent #1)
Buy It: Book Depository

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.

Unlike Divergent that hooked me from page 1, Insurgent has a slower start, probably because Tris is dealing with huge amounts of grief and guilt from what happened with her parents and her friend Will. I felt like Roth tackled these complex feelings in a way that felt authentic, Tris couldn't just brush them off and pretend like nothing happened– they were eating her from the inside.

The plot in Insurgent is a bit more slow-moving and straightforward than Divergent but that doesn't make it any less exciting. I loved the look into the other faction's lives, in particular Amity and Candor neither of which Tris had an aptitude for but this just shows how people aren't straightforward or just one thing, because even in these factions she finds some connections to the people who belong there. Neither is the relationship between Four and Tris straightforward, it isn't just mushy romance, and in that way it felt more real and genuine, the beautiful moments they had together were even more special. And of course, no love triangle– Roth revealed this before the book was released, but I still found it such a refreshing relief.

And of course, the ending, wow. When I finished Insurgent I couldn't help feeling like the entire book, the first 500 pages, had been preparation for those final 25 pages. Twists and turns and reveals, and even when I saw one coming (minor spoiler: like what happened with the Dauntless and the Factionless at Erudite headquarters) it still felt so perfect it gave me chills. Especially I loved the unexpected bad and good guys, how characters I thought I knew did things I didn't expect, but in the end I still believed it because of how fleshed out and real they were. Plus, as intense and insane as the ending of the book is, there is still a full story and not a cliffhanger midway through; instead, like Divergent it is the kind of ending that changes everything.

Picking up Insurgent reminded me just why Divergent was one of my very favourite reads of 2011, a list its sequel has now made of the following year. These books are just so much fun and excitement to read. Really, if you loved Divergent like I did, I really don't think you'll be disappointed in its sequel Insurgent, because even if the story takes awhile to get moving the ending is completely worth it. Now begins the anxious wait for book 3 in fall 2013.