Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Title: Insurgent
Author: Veronica Roth
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Pages: 525

Summary: One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

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.

There are some books that make reviewing very, very difficult. Obviously, INSURGENT is one of them. I really want to say all the things! And I probably will. So, this is your warning that there will be spoilers ahead.

If you read my review of DIVERGENT, you know how much I loved it. The world, the idea, the characters. Everything. Tris is a badass, and Four, well… I don’t suppose I need to explain why I love him.

INSURGENT picks up right where DIVERGENT ends, with Four and Tris on the train to Amity Headquarters. They’ve just made it through the Erudite’s attack and stopped the simulation that was controlling the Dauntless population. Except, of course, for the Divergent.

We stopped the simulation—the weight of the hard drive in my back pocket reminds me—but we didn’t pause to see the aftermath. What happened to our friends, our peers, our leaders, our factions? There is no way to know.

Their world has just been effectively ripped apart, and what they don’t know yet, is that it’s only the beginning.

“Nothing else is all right.” His whisper tickles my cheek. “But we are.”

I’m not sure what I was prepared for going into this book, but I think all of my expectations were met and then some. I do know that I expected answers. And we got some of those. But we also got way more questions. Every answer that came through, it felt like a new question bloomed in its place. I was constantly on my toes, wondering, waiting, hoping and guessing.

In the midst of all that, there was action, adventure, angst, swoons, death and surprises. Yes. Surprises. A couple of them were oh-shit-out-loud surprises. A couple of them were definite ah-hah moments. Husband dude laughed at my “I knew it!”’s quite a few times.

What I’m saying is, this book never, ever lulled for me. I was engaged from start to finish.

It’s hard to break this down, but I guess the easiest thing would be to tell you what I liked and what I didn’t.

I loved Tris; she will always be a badass to me, but I’ll admit that I did not like her for parts of this book. I did not like her at all. She made me angry, and sad, and a little disappointed in her if I’m being honest.

Four. Duh. Tobias is, and forever will be, one of my favorite bookboys. He made me hurt so good. I felt his emotions and turmoil and his… I felt all the things, okay? I just can’t even explain it. The way these two are when they’re together. Whether things are good or bad, I love it. Any interaction makes me happy (even if it’s making me want to throw up).

I totally enjoyed learning about all of the other factions, not just Dauntless. This time around, I felt like I was able to develop a respect for how their individual groups work and function, and how without one, the others would suffer. (I would definitely have missed Amity and their serums, because that was epic) And that was something I never felt in DIVERGENT. I really only cared about Dauntless then, but that changed very quickly in INSURGENT.

I enjoyed the return of characters from the first book, like Uriah and Lynn. And Caleb… briefly (I still have hope!!). There were some characters I wouldn’t have minded falling off the train *cough* Peter… Eric… Marcus. I loved the introduction of some new characters, and I cannot wait for the next book to find out just what’s in store for everyone.

Just like last time, I’m on the edge of my seat.

Everything Caren said. The swoons. The flails. The gasps. This made me laugh and cry and feel everything in between. I don’t know what else to say besides read it!

 

***

Caren: I can’t believe you didn’t tell me how much this book was going to MAKE ME FEEL ALL THE THINGS. Like throwing up, stabbing people, sobbing, wanting chocolate…tequila… you know.

Kassiah: I know. I just didn’t feel like I could say stuff without telling you everything. That’s kind of how I feel here. I can’t wait for everyone to read it! I think it’s fitting that we’re reviewing Insurgent during our Anniversary week. It’s an anniversary in more ways than one–Divergent was the first book we reviewed on the Fictionators.

I loved pretty much everything, but one of the things I really liked is that it picks up basically right where Divergent left off. I’m glad that a bunch of time didn’t pass, leaving us wondering what happened in between.

Caren: I was glad for that too, since Veronica told me herself that she didn’t do much recapping. I prefer that, honestly (most of the time). I’m glad I was able to jump right into the story rather than digging through all the re-cap crap. Haha.

Kassiah: So I feel like I don’t know what to tell everyone about the book. How can we give a synopsis without giving everything away? How’s this: Insurgent picks up right from the end of Divergent, with Tris and Four travelling on the train toward Amity Headquarters with Marcus and Caleb. They spend some time there, find out some stuff, and go other places.

Really, nothing I can say will do this story justice. One of the most interesting things to me, is that Veronica Roth has made the story more plausible. The number one reason that I’ve gotten from my friends who didn’t love Divergent (*gasp*) is that they couldn’t believe in this society, in this world. Insurgent blows that out of the water and makes it seem so real. We had tons of questions after what happened in Divergent, and many of them were answered, only to be replaced by more questions and more theories. Though this book is darker, I think it’s all necessary.

Caren: I’ve honestly been thinking about it, and I don’t even know where to start! I was baffled by the people who frowned on Divergent because they felt like there wasn’t enough information. Because I’ve always felt like she did that on purpose. Plus, it’s dystopian. That’s just how it’s supposed to be. Some things are assumed (for me at least). It’s futuristic, the world is different. Why couldn’t things be that way?

And you’re completely right when you say that everything we thought we knew is blown out of the water. I don’t think I’m giving anything away when I say that we get to see a piece of every faction, and then… well, I can’t tell them THAT, because, well… I just can’t. But I loved Insurgent, because I felt like I was able to see and identify more with everyone, not just Dauntless.

Kassiah: That’s a great point. I think a lot of people will be switching faction allegiances after reading this. Who knew Amity had it in them?!? lol Let’s talk about what we really want to talk about then: Four. I die from the swoons.

Caren: OKAY. Oh, wait, sorry… I got a little excited. Yes. Let’s discuss Four. He KILLED me. Seriously killed me. If this had been in his POV, I don’t know if I would have been able to handle it. I’m not even joking. Just like I expected, he did not disappoint with the swoons. I think I love him even more now, if that’s possible. *sigh*

”Sleep,” he says. “I’ll fight the bad dreams off if they come to get you.”

“With what?”

“My bare hands, obviously.”

Kassiah: Yesssssss. I want more Four POV! That was one of my favorite parts. So was this:

I feel his heavy breaths against my cheek.

“I wish we were alone,” he says.

“I almost always wish that,” I say.

Caren: GAH! Now you’re making me want to re-read…again. I’m seriously so, so in love with him. Like, it rivals my love for youknowwho.

Kassiah: I know! I want to re-read, too. How about Tris? She totally kicked ass in Divergent, but here we see a more vulnerable girl who flounders a little bit.

Caren: I mentioned this in my review up there, but I love Tris. She’s still a badass…but there were points when I absolutely wanted to smack her upside her little head for the decisions she made.

Kassiah: I agree. One thing that I loved is that though we want to shake her–we know why she’s doing what she’s doing. And I don’t hate her. Some of the other characters are really going to surprise you.

Caren: Oh, I could never hate her. I understood her reasons, but I definitely wanted to beat her up a few times, LOL. I don’t like when Tobias gets hurt. And yes, some characters will definitely surprise people! I’m still questioning one of them. I want to be wrong so bad.

Kassiah: I hope we’re wrong, too. *smh* The bottom line, Fictionees, is that you’re going to love Four Insurgent! If you haven’t already, grab your copy today and let us know what you think in the comments!

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