Review - Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Fighting for survival in a shattered world… the truth is her only hope.

The thrillingly dark sequel to No. 1 New York Times bestseller, DIVERGENT.

I have done bad things. I can’t take them back, and they are part of who I am.

Tris has survived a brutal attack on her former home and family. But she has paid a terrible price. Wracked by grief and guilt, she becomes ever more reckless as she struggles to accept her new future.

Yet if Tris wants to uncover the truth about her world, she must be stronger than ever… because more shocking choices and sacrifices lie ahead.

I don't know if I said this when I reviewed book one, but I am super glad that I waited such a long time to read this series. If I had had to wait ANY length of time in between reading Divergent and Insurgent by Veronica Roth, I think I would have gone crazy. I don't recall ever having read a book before that literally had my heart pounding like mad. So Insurgent had a lot to live up to.

It starts off where book one left us. Tris and Four have just been completely devestated by the loss of almost all of the Abnegation factor and Tris's family, on top of the fact that she had to kill one of her closest Dauntless friends who was going to murder her under the simulation serum. After revealing that fact under a truth serum, she has to suffer through the fall out while Christina wants nothing to do with her and Four is upset that she seems to have issues being honest with him.

They seek refuge in Amity who decides to remain neutral. But, in an effort to remain the ever peace-keeping faction, Tris and her crew are not out of the woods yet.

I loved that we got to take a look in to all of the different factions more closely than before. We were so saturated with Dauntless and were only given glimpses of  the others. The world building and the descriptions and depth that's gone into during this story is absolutely fantastic. I've read a lot of stories where you get JUST ENOUGH to know what's going on, but nothing else. And those types of books always leave me wanting more. This series, though, Roth is wonderful at describing everything in such incredible detail that I feel like I can close my eyes and picture it perfectly.

Along with setting, feelings and emotions were thrown at me with such ferocity that I found myself feeling them right along with the characters. I got this throbbing ache in my chest following Tris through her emotional turmoil and could totally feel Four's fear as Tris spiraled further and further down in to the black hole she had fallen in to.

She kind of had a Katniss Everdeen breakdown. More like a Katniss Everdeen/Bella Swan (sorry, I know.... I hate making the comparison, I promise) breakdown. She was so stricken by grief that she was reckless, thinking that the only way to honor the sacrifice made by so many before was to do everything she possibly could to join them.

As with the previous book, I really don't know what else to say. There were so many amazing characters to write about, but I don't feel like I can just pick one or two (apart from Tris and Four) to talk about and do them justice. Books with so many characters sometimes have a hard time giving life to all of them. But these characters are each given personality and flaws and back stories that are just fascinating.

Again, I recommend this book to dystopian fans. Fans of the Hunger Games series and... just exciting reads in general. It may be a little too complex for younger readers to understand so it's probably better for an older crowd, but I think EVERYONE should read this. After you've read book one of course. Because it literally picks up RIGHT where the first story left off. Go read it! Now!