Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ (4.5/5 stars)
First off, there may be a spoiler warning. If you haven’t read the first book – obviously don’t read the review for this second book as I will be discussing what happened in the first one.
In the first book, Divergent, Tris thought the toughest choice she had was whether to leave her originating faction for another one. Little did she know that she would be facing a lot more dire circumstances in the sequel, Insurgent. Her faith in the factions are tested, her relationship is tested, who and what she knows is tested. When last we left Divergent, there was an impending war about to break loose.
Right off the bat, I likened this darker, grittier action-packed sequel to that of Pandemonium, the sequel to Delirium - which also had a similar grimmer feel, and which I absolutely love. Give me more action than over-the-top romance any day! That being said, while I liked the sequel more than the first book of Lauren Oliver’s series, the same can’t be said about this one. Don’t get me wrong, I still very thoroughly enjoyed Insurgent, but there seemed to be a bit of disconnect with the Tris from Divergent and the Tris from Insurgent. Granted, she had been through a lot but her erratic behaviour and polarizing mood swings, especially towards Tobias, seemed excessive. And speaking of Tobias, I can’t stand that name. It doesn’t suit how he’s described to be. Every time I read that name, I pictured Tobias Fünke from Arrested Development! He needs to just go by Four.
While the mysterious “information” that everyone wanted to obtain or destroy was the driving force for the book, I felt the constant back and forth mixing of factions to be a bit distracting and confusing to follow. There were good & bad, loyal & traitorous for so many factions that I found it a bit hard to keep track of who was in what group.
However, that being said, I could not put this book down. I needed to find out where this was going and what this “information” was that everybody wanted to get their hands on. The narrative rarely lagged and was so well-paced to keep the 525 page book moving that I was surprised how quickly I got through it. Thank goodness that Roth was smart and selective of what she’d leave as a cliffhanger, because if she left certain things dragging onto the next book, I might have wanted to throw the book out the window! Overall a satisfying conspiracy-filled sequel to the extremely successful first book, and very much looking forward to the next one in a year’s time.
This, and other reviews can be found on my blog JustALilLost.com
