Review: Insurgent (Divergent, #2) by Veronica Roth

Insurgent (Divergent, #2) by Veronica Roth

Author: Veronica Roth
Publication Date: May 1, 2012
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 525
Genre: YA, Dystopian
Source: Bought it

Book Description from Goodreads:
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.

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Warning! If you haven't read Divergent this will be spoilery!

Review:

     Picking up where Divergent left off; the Factions are in varying states of chaos as the Erudite plan to wipe Abnegation off the map with mind controlled Dauntless was thwarted by Tris and her uncanny Divergent brain...But what seemed like a great victory came at a terrible personal cost to Tris and with the leaders of each nation shaken to the core - everyone has to choose their side as secrets fester and unlikely alliances are formed and an epic battle looms on the horizon. 

     I'm loving that the covers are following a similar Faction symbol theme, I'll be sorely disappointed if 'they' decide to change the covers midway through this series. 

     At the end of Divergent Tris grows up fast, and in a blink of an eye she loses her parents, takes the life of a friend and is left running on the lam. She's understandably shell shocked, post traumatically stressed and ridden with guilt. Her Dauntless side takes a bit of a backseat in Insurgent - that's not to say that there isn't any action, because there is. LOADS OF IT and in a much deadlier sense. But we get to explore other facets of Tris' potential, like her Erudite side. She's brilliant at seeing plots and the bigger political picture, but her trauma and guilt bogs her down and makes her act really reckless. Such as bringing a knife to a gun fight. But she ends up going down a really dark path, and I really hated how it seemed like for most of the book she was stuck in this place. However, Roth was brilliant at tearing Tris down to her foundations and at the tipping point Tris finds her reason to keep going.

     I still love Four. I'll forgive the secrets and ultimatums because he's scary awesome and a natural leader. Everyone looks up to him and he never wanted that role but this time he embraces it and it was amazing! He always has that one scene that burns into my mind (like aiming deadly objects at Tris in Divergent), Insurgent took it much further. It was still a brilliantly calculated move on Four's part, but it makes you step back and re-evaluate how you feel about Four. 

     What I was really surprised at was the trust that Tris and Four had built up in Divergent, which I thought would be pretty much unshakable. But their relationship; though filled with some very steamy scenes gets a little lost along the way. It would be too easy to just have them have a happy ending in the middle of a broken world, but at the end of Insurgent I think they'll finally be that strong team I was looking for in the third installment of the Divergent series. 

     At the end of Divergent we were treated to some incredible revelations about her mother but the secret motives behind the Erudite's plan was never fully revealed. So the big question to answer in Insurgent was the why of it all - and when we find out the answer. OH MY is it EVER a cliffhanger. Like drop your jaw - you'll probably throw the book across the room (but not really because that's mean) kind of cliffhanger. The conspiracy theory hamster in my brain is working overtime in its wheel!

Overall: 4/5 HOT Cups of Tea!

Roth took these characters and completely reshaped what I knew about them, and I LOVED it! We get a closer look at what it means to be Divergent, and what it means to sacrifice your life for something. It was a bit long at 525 pages, and I did forget who a few minor characters were (I felt like re-reading Divergent before starting this would've been beneficial) but the mysteries and political intrigue and the ingeniousness of it all was worth it! One thing: is it fall yet? Why can't it be fall yet?! I need to know what happens!