Review : Insurgent by Veronica Roth
Insurgent by Veronica Roth
Pages : 525
Genre : Dystopia, YA
Series : Divergent, book 2
My Rating : 3/5
From the book’s jacket :
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.
My Thoughts :
First, an apology; I usually try to summarize the books I read in my own words, but here it felt impossible to do it justice without spoiling too much. I felt the book’s own summary was sufficiently vague, and I can now use what little brain power is left to write this review!
Insurgent was, in many ways, a lot like its predecessor Divergent; filled with action, quick pace, lots of characters, lots of danger, little room to breath between all the twists and turns. It just never stops. Which is good! Never boring, Insurgent keeps you turning the pages quicker and quicker until you reach the ending, breathless.
But sometimes, there is a thing as too much action. It keeps you so busy with the excitation that you sort of forget to think about what you’re reading. When I reached the last page of Insurgent, I had a very similar reaction to reading Divergent : “Oh that was so much fun! I just can’t wait to see what happens next! These five hundred pages flew by!”
But then, once the excitement died down, I took a moment to think about the story and the worldbuilding, and I realized I felt largely unsatisfied. Questions I had after reading the first book are still unanswered: how can it make sense to categorize people in only 5 categories? What happened to the rest of the world? The book gives hints of maybe answering part of these interrogations in the next book, but at this point, it feels like too little too late.
I do know though that not every book has to feed your brain and make you question the meaning of life. The thrill of the adventure is sometimes sufficient to keep you hooked – which was totally the case for me here. I honestly had a great time reading Tris’s story, even though I didn’t care for her romance, even though I felt like she often made questionable decisions, and even though her world didn’t really made sense.
In short: I was entertained, but not impressed. And sometimes, that’s just good enough to keep you reading!
Series Reading Order :
- Divergent
- Insurgent
- Allegiant
Hopefully it’s just a case of sophomore slump.
A lot of people felt that this one wasn’t as good as the first, and I haven’t read either yet, so I can’t weigh in. I am planning on reading the first and no doubt the second when I can though. They sound like amazing books with a lot of questions. I agree with Kathy, it might just be the sophomore slump.
I know what you mean about this one, Kay. There is so much action it overwhelms the story. I did rate it higher than you but I wonder how well it holds up in the long run. I may have to reread the series again before Allegiant comes out, so we’ll see! Entertaining is a good word for this series.
Hopefully the last book will tie up the loose ends and the series will go out with a bang.
I think I know what you mean. I read it 2 months ago and even if I liked it vey much, I don’t remember it clearly. And it was the same with book 1.
Ha! Exactly! I read it in January and I took notes, and yet, I had to reread parts of it before writing the review. I could barely remember what had happened. I had had a better experience with the first one though. I wonder how the third book will be?