Insurgent by Veronica Roth
My rating: 4/5 cats
wait, so book three is out soon, right?? RIGHT???
second books are always hard, particularly the middle book of a trilogy. so many times, they just operate as filler – adhering the beginning of a story to its conclusion with unnecessary stickiness. most trilogies should probably just be duologies, you ask me.
there are always exceptions: the border trilogy, chaos walking trilogy – where the middle book is actually the strongest, and books like kjaerstad’s jonas wergeland trilogy, where each book is a perfect luminous gem. but usually, the second book will let you down.
and this is NOT a bad book. it’s just my expectations were too, too high.
i loved divergent. loved it. and that was despite its having one of the more ridiculous premises i have come across in YA fiction. but it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the book one bit, because her writing was so remarkable, and the pacing was so blindingly fast, i barely had time to register the silliness. and by the end, when i stopped to think, “wow, there are some ridiculous foundations to that story,” it didn’t matter at all, because i had had such a wonderful time reading that book.
this book is a much slower and more deliberate story, with more psychological character development that slows down the pacing just enough to really highlight its weaknesses.
the strengths:
tris is a fantastic character. i really love her. she is tough and foolish and headstrong and capable and athletic without losing her femininity. she is completely believable. and even though she gets lost in her own head for a great deal of this book, and that can be really frustrating, it is also very believable. i mean, with everything that has happened to her and those around her, i think giving her a little me-time to mourn and wallow is completely reasonable. i’m glad that she doesn’t just bounce right back after everything, and that it affects her relationship with four and others around her. realism is appreciated.
and her relationship with four is so refreshingly real. this is a very mature treatment of a relationship that isn’t blinded by neediness or delusions of the others’ perfection.i was really touched by them, if you want to know the truth. they each have their own shit going on, and a lot of this book finds them dealing with that shit independently, but they keep believing in each other and the strength of their bond. i love his expectations of her. he never tries to shield her or protect her because she is such a capable character, even with all her human frailties. she never needs to be put in a corner, even when she doubts herself.
my biggest problem was just, again, the factions. i thought they were silly in the first book – these very limiting designations where everyone is one of five ways with very little deviation. silly. this one just made it a little sillier, with people leaving factions and going undercover into other factions, and blending with other factions in sanctuary, and i just got a little muddled trying to remember who is wearing what color and what that means and who is double-crossing and wearing a disguise and no one can tell because they are wearing red, so everything else is overlooked…i found it hard to believe in the built world, even though she manages to give enough details that it can be accepted as “their world, not our world.” suspend your disbelief,and you should be fine.
you should read this book. you know you want to. just know that it is a more meditative volume. there is plenty of action (oh, boy, is there ever!), but overall, it is a more sedate and in-depth study of tris’ world, and the way it affects the populace.
read it for tris, if nothing else.
