Insurgent (Divergent #2)

I didn't like Insurgent as much as Divergent. I feel that the quality of the writing wasn't as good. It was less amazing, and I didn't feel into it as much. It was good though, the idea, I was like saying awesome over and over again.

The real people inside all the characters come out. With Caleb, he chooses faction over blood, the 'leader' of Amity, Tori, Everlyn, Marcus, Tris, Tobias. Every single person. They come out from the hard casing surrounding them, and the real them comes out. Tris seems to be a very selfless person underneath, but she is a bit of a wreck after the thing with Will. I would be like that, but not for that long, and not so extreme. I would be able to pick up a gun if my own life depended on it.

I love the ending, very mysterious. I love the.... well, I won't say as it would ruin the entire story.

This is book is really amazing, but the writing isn't as good as Divergent. This book is not a waste of time. READ IT, IF YOU WANT TO LIVE!!!!

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I am amazed by how deeply she developed the relationship of Tris and Tobias. Insurgent is masterfully written. You will thoroughly enjoy it.

“Insurgent,” he says. “Noun. A person who acts in opposition to the established authority, who is not necessarily regarded as a belligerent.”
I had been smart, and had kept my expectations of Insurgent very low, so I wouldn't be utterly disappointed in it. It was a completely unnecessary thing to do, I found out while reading. Insurgent is one of these books that completely blew my mind. I just finished it 5 minutes ago, and I still am kind of speechless. I liked Insurgent even better than Divergent, and that was one of my favourite books of 2011.


Tris and the other characters show a lot of development. Only, character development is not a very accurate way to describe it. I could better day that it was a whole character transformation. The way the title of this book describes Tris 2.0, it's amazing. I can imagine Veronica Roth reading through a dictionary searching for a perfect name for this book, then stumbling upon the word Insurgent. I can almost imagine her squeeing and doing the happy dance. It's something I would do if I were her... :)


Tris's character has grown from a little girl into a full-grown powerful independent women. Even though she still is very small looking from the outside, which btw really adds something to her character. She isn't Beatrice anymore. Tobias 'Four' also showed a lot of charcter development. The most important to me was a change in his fears, about which I can't talk without spoiling the story... Then there are some new characters, and some old ones who, sometimes very unexpectedly, returned.


Immediately after the ending of Divergent, Insurgent started. This was pretty hard for me. It had been over 4 months since I'd read Divergent, and I had forgotten lots of character names, and quite a lot of the plot. After a few chapters I was completely sucked up by the story again, and all my questions about what happened to who in Divergent disappeared. The story continues, but there are some massive changes in the structure of the soceity. War between the Factions if luring around the corner, and friends aren't who they seemed to be. Tris reminds me of Katniss a lot, and the plot of Insurgent reminded me a lot of Mockingjay's plot. They weren't really the same, but they just shared some similarities I couldn't avoid seeing. The story kept me interested from the title until the very last word.


The ending already has me craving for the next -and final :c- book in this series. It doesn't even have a title :o! I wish I had it right now. Accio Divergent #3! Does anyone have the blueprints for a time machine? I really need one at the moment.

I have to admit, I got sort of caught up in the Insurgent madness. I had read Divergent, by the lovely and insanely talented Veronica Roth, and really loved the concept of the book. Insurgent was on my pre-order list and then the Twittersphere took off… I “Liked” the Divergent page on Facebook and did the little aptitude test to see what faction I would be in. Though I honestly think I would be Divergent (read possible ADHD or some-such), the dooflotchy told me I was Dauntless. Okay, I will take that. Dauntless fits, with a peppering of Amity and Erudite.

When Insurgent finally arrived, I was so super excited. I had to find out what Tris was going to do and how Four would help her. I had so many questions at the end of Divergent and now I would get some answers. And I did! Well, kind of.

Insurgent takes you deeper into the cluster-fudge that is known as Chicago (once upon a time). The factions are crumbling, whether they will admit it or not, and nobody is safe from anyone. Betrayal is the soup du jour sidled up next to that manipulation sandwich you’re eating. Friendships are not what they once were, family can (and will) be your worst enemy, trust is non-existent, loyalties are tested, and love will be a casualty of war if you’re not careful. In short…a roller-coaster of a book.

In the last several days, I have seen several reviews talking of large plot holes. Granted, I do have questions regarding some of the avenues taken in Insurgent, but I am patient enough to keep them to myself until the next book. There has been mention of Tris’ shoulder and how she never seemed to heal… Do you have any idea how long it takes for a gunshot wound to heal? A long freakin’ time. We are talking in months here people, so yeah, I bet Tris still has probs with a hole in her shoulder, possible cracked or shattered bone, torn muscle and tendons… A long time peeps. The pace of Insurgent suggests that a lot of the action happens over several days to a couple weeks and that is not enough time to heal from a GSW. Jus sayin.

Let’s get to the characters.

Tris. Our girl is having issues. Some reviewers had issues with her whining in Insurgent. Meh. I don’t really see it that way. Sure, she is kind of a broken record over the horrible things she has done, but she is not superwoman. She is Tris. Yeah, she chose Dauntless, but Tris is Tris. She is not Marlene or Lynn or even Tori! She is Tris, an Abnegation girl who has killed people who meant something to her. If you have a problem with her erratic sort of ‘woe is me’ demeanor, then I urge you to look up PTSD. Do yourself a favor, look it up. Anything look familiar? But Tris is in hell, quite literally. She is hanging on by a thread through most of the book and is struggling with who she is, what she is becoming, and all the demons that haunt her thoughts.

Four. Our beloved Tobias. He’s not in much better shape than Tris. In Divergent, Four was this pillar of strength that was always riding Tris’ ass getting her to push harder. That part of Four is still there, kinda, but he has his own demons to keep at bay. You know those four fears he has? Yeah, those? Well, he has to face one in Insurgent. In real life, not the fear landscape, and to say it rocks his world is an understatement. Some have commented that Four has lost his edge, that he is not the same guy in Insurgent. True enough, but neither would you be if one of the four things you feared (and probably the most fearsome) became suddenly very real, very live and in color. It would change who you are. But he is coming into his own and I feel an even stronger Tobias in the making...

For me, Insurgent was very much like what a second book should be. It’s crazy, there are more questions, sometimes the pace is erratic, you can feel the build-up like being wrapped in a wool sweater during sweltering Tennessee summers, and by the end you are slightly breathless and exhausted. I like this…a lot. I tells me that Book 3 will be a great close for an already great series. The final act brings us all in and ties up all the craziness we get in Book 2.

I thoroughly enjoy the world that Veronica Roth has built with Divergent and now Insurgent. It’s gritty and messy and full of conflict. Now if I only have the patience to wait for Book 3 and not bite my nails to nubs. Slim at best…

Wow. Okay. I just finished Insurgent, the highly anticipated second book in Veronica Roth's Divergent trilogy, and I've got to say...it's good. It's really good. In my opinion, better than Divergent. Let me try to get my thoughts in order and explain why.

Like Divergent, Insurgent is a mile-a-minute roller coaster of a book. There is tons of edge-of-your-seat action and suspense that starts near the beginning of the book and doesn't stop until the last page.

However, Insurgent takes what Divergent had going for it and takes it to a new level. The stakes are higher, the action is grander, and the payoff is bigger. In the first book, we watch as Tris discovers her inner Dauntless. She performs a lot of stunts that, from my boring-adult perspective, are reckless and stupid, and serve no purpose. However, that recklessness and fearlessness actually comes in handy in Insurgent, where her goals are far loftier than just making it into a horribly superficial faction and impressing a boy.

The love story between Tris and Four is definitely present throughout the book, but it's not the main focus. It develops around the big events surrounding the characters, and does not usurp them, which is good. They're both concerned with saving the world, and both realize that's more important than their relationship drama. A good realization to have, especially when you remember that they are still both teenagers.

There are a lot of deaths in Insurgent. It's like Deathly Hallows and Mockingjay all over again. No one is safe. On the one hand, I hate when authors kill off good characters (especially when the nasty ones survive), because it hurts my little reader feelings. On the other hand, it really helps me not to become complacent as a reader when I realize that any of these characters could die at any time. There's not that feeling of, "well, this situation kinda sucks, but you know it'll be okay because there's no way she'd kill off that character." Nope, she would kill off that character. She proved it in Divergent, and it's even more prevalent in Insurgent.

As for Tris herself, I liked her a lot more in this book. She grew up a lot. She made more mature decisions, causing me to see for the first time that she really may have some aptitude for Abnegation (something I didn't see at all in the first book). She still did some stupid things and made some poor choices, but it was nice to generally see her acting more reasonably and not just out of spite or anger or recklessness.

I also liked that she spent the entire book dealing with the consequences of her actions in the first book. I was concerned she would recover too quickly from the events in Divergent, but she dealt with them throughout the book. She had psychological trauma and battle scars. It made her seem a lot more real.

And remember all those questions I had about Divergent? How a lot of things weren't explained and didn't make sense and I hoped they would be explained in the next book? Well, they were. I didn't even realize that we were going to get answers to those questions until I read the last chapter, and then boom, there they were. Not 100%, because this is book #2 in a trilogy and having all my questions answered would be an unreasonable expectation. But they were addressed, the answers were heavily hinted at, and I now have little doubt that we'll get much more satisfying explanations in book #3.

All in all, I thought Insurgent was a great follow-up to Divergent. It was more thrilling, more mature, and generally more satisfying. I'm excited to see where it goes in what is sure to be an explosive finale.

Veronica Roth's second novel, Insurgent, came out yesterday. And if you don't know that already, you and I live in very different worlds. Divergent was my favorite book of last year, so I had very high expectations. To be honest, I had high expectations of the last one. I'd followed Veronica Roth on her blog for months, and brazenly assumed two things before its release. First, that she and I would make very good friends, and second, that her book would be amazing. I need hardly mention that we are not good friends (she would probably find me annoying), but her book not only failed to disappoint, it was leaps and bounds better than I could have expected. Insurgent is just as good.

So good, in fact, that it almost defies description. I must not be the only one who feels this way, either, because most of the reviews and blurbs I've read actually saying almost nothing about what happens in the book. Without giving away too much, here's my feeble attempt:

Insurgent begins barely a breath after the final scene in Divergent. After destroying the simulation program that caused the Dauntless to brutally attack Abnegation, Tris and Four take refuge with the Amity, along with Marcus, Peter, Caleb, and a handful of Abnegation refugees. But they can only stay as long as they can abide by Amity's code of behavior, and after killing one of her best friends and watching her parents get shot to death, Tris has no aptitude for a world of happiness and harmony. The Erudite aren't particularly interested in honoring Amity's stance as a neutral faction anyway. Before long, they are on the run again. Finding the other Dauntless who have refused to join the Erudite and Dauntless traitors, Tris and Four face the grim possibility that if no faction is left to help them, they may have no other option but to join the factionless.

This is more or less the premise of the book, but there's a lot more to it than just Tris and Four running around the streets of dystopian Chicago. The first book introduces a love story that I can't help but call precious even though the characters are both fierce and fearless. The second book puts that love to the test. Four has always pushed Tris to build her courage, to know her own strength. He has never let her back down or give in to fear. But when her courage turns daredevil, he knows the difference. Their relationship is a reminder that we should be the kinds of people who expect the best from those we love, forgiving weakness but not enabling it. We should be those sorts of people for others, and we should look for those sorts of people for ourselves.

It's hard to talk about Tris without talking about her strength, but Tris isn't interesting because she is strong. She's interesting because she becomes strong, and her strength is more than just her bravery and battle skills. If this book teaches us anything, it's that there's virtue in striving for virtue. In a sense, you might think the book is saying quite the opposite - these corrupt factions, after all, are the result of a group of people deciding to pursue a single virtue exclusive of all others. But Tris is Divergent, and we see the world through her eyes. She will always be striving toward more than one virtue, always leaning toward a better way, always finding what is right and what is hurtful in each of the factions. On the one hand, this makes her self-critical to the point of self-destruction. On the other hand, it also makes her a heroine.

When I was a teenager, I was single-minded about bettering myself - whether it be in school or just generally as a human being. I was very aware of different virtues that I had and that I didn't have, as though they were clearly demarcated factions within myself. It's been a long time since I've felt that way, and I know that in a sense I'm healthier for the change. But in another sense, I have lost something, too. I have not forgotten, but I have certainly ignored the fact that I can change for the better - and that I should. I am nothing like Tris, and my world is radically different than hers. But she is a reminder of what I have been and what I ought to be.