Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Words cannot express how much I’ve been anticipating this books’ release. Divergent was one of my top favorite books of 2011. When people ask me what I think about these books, I tell them they are some of the few books I rank up there with the Hunger Games. I’ve met the author, and she is so cool too! And there was probably nothing cooler than listening to Veronica Roth read from the beginning on this one at the RT Booklovers Convention. It seriously made my anticipation that much greater.

And I was not disappointed. It took me a little longer than expected to finish this one. Though this was partly due to my crazy schedule this week. It’s also due to the fact that it’s one of those books I needed to savor. I didn’t want it to be over too soon. When I wasn’t reading it, I was thinking about it. And even now, after finishing it a day ago (I’m a little behind in my posts this week), I’m still thinking about it.

If anyone thought loyalties were questioned in the first one, wait till you read this one! It begins right after the first one ends.  Tris, Tobias, and company escaped the Duantless traitors and Eurdite soldiers to look for safety with Amity (the peaceful faction). While Amity is all about peace, they make clear right away that there will be strict guidelines for all those staying with them.

At Amity, Tris learns from Tobias’ awful father that there’s a lot more going on than meets the eye. For starters, what was the information the Eurdite were willing to kill a whole faction over? And why were her parents so involved? What did her parents die trying to protect? Unfortunately for Tris, every time she tries to figure this stuff out, Tobias pushes these questions aside. He’s more interested in siding with his mother and the factionless.

Tobias works hard to become a new Dauntless leader and once he does, he works to gain peace with the factionless. His goal is to eradicate Erudite, and punish them for all their wrongdoings. His mother, leader of the factionless, wants to create a new society with no factions. Tris and Tobias’s friends mostly want to punish the Erudite for all the deaths they caused.  And Tris refuses to let go of the information and truth she wants to find out.

There are lots of traitors in this book. There’s also lots of death. It’s hard for the characters to get what they want because they never really seem to stay anywhere too long. Between all the captures, the secret meetings, the running for your life escape moments, constantly being beat up, shot at, argued over, the character never have anything easy.

There’s a lot of arguments between Tobias and Tris. Tobias isn’t too forthcoming about stuff with his mother. And Tris is reluctant to talk about her killing one of her best friends (who was under the mind controlling simulation in book 1). Tris has a lot of problems in this book. She’s dealing with killing a best friend, the loss of both her parents, and then some serious complications with her brother. And her gut keeps telling her to learn what this critical information Eurdite wants to keep hush hush is, something the selfless abnegation wants the world to know.

Tris has become a lot more reckless and Dauntless, throwing herself into dangerous missions without too much thought for her own life. And this causes more problems in the Tobias department. And there is the question of how far each person is willing to go to get what they want.

There’s more simulations, more crazy fight scenes, more divergent mystery, and definitely some more juicy romance! They start rounding up the divergent like cattle a little bit, and the more stuff that happened there, the more I needed to know. Thankfully, a lot gets answers at the end. There is one major cliffhanger of all cliffhangers, but it comes after some serious reveals, so it’s okay.

There were two small things that bothered me. 1) I had no memory of some of the characters. I’m rather good at remembering books despite the quantity that I read each year. And I definitely remember books I love as much as Divergent, but certain characters would die and Tris would be so effected, but I wouldn’t really care because I don’t think they were that important or at least around much since the beginning of book 1. I really think Tris and Tobias are two of my all time favorite YA characters, but there were a lot of characters here who I felt needed a little more development or maybe even just a sentence of a recap/explanation. 2) It did feel like that classic Book 2 filler book. I’m not saying that this is necessarily a bad thing. I just wish a little more was discovered and or handled a little earlier. I feel like the major stuff all happens at the end, and a lot of the rest was kind of filler.

I do love though that I got to see the other factions. The kids went to Amity, Abegnation, Eurdite, and back to Dauntless and I loved being able to see how the other societies lived. My guess is that this will be important for book 3. And I loved getting to know some of the other leaders of the factions. I found them fascinating. I loved hating the bad guy (Jeanine). And I loved how much the people in this book were forced to learn and understand about each other. It had that book 2 filler feel, yet I do see how this will matter later on.

I loved watching Tris grow. She’s had a lot of pain and death to get over, but she does get over it, in her own way. She has really become such a hero, someone willing to die in order for many to live. The decisions she makes in this book are tough. There’s one point where she pretty much has to decide which of her friends she should save, while at least one will have to die. And I feel for Tris so much for having to make such a hard decisions.

I still give this one a 10/10. I was incredibly impressed. Like I said, I savored it. I didn’t want it to end. And I can’t wait for book 3!