Know Your Place • Insurgent

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Series: Divergent #2
Previous Book: Divergent
Publisher: Harper Teen
Publication Date: May 1, 2012
Source/Format: Bought || Hardcover

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.

I was a very big fan of the first book in the series, Divergent, so my expectations for Insurgent may have been the teensiest bit high. I am happy to report that Veronica Roth not only met my expectations, but solidly surpassed them.

I. LOVED. THIS. BOOK.

It's taken me nearly two weeks to try to wrap my mind around why I love it so much, but still, I don't think there's any more accurate way to begin writing this review other than the above sentence.

What I really liked about Insurgent is, surprisingly, Tris. She went through a lot towards the end of the first book and it definitely shows its effects in this novel. The shift in her personality as a reaction to the trauma and stress is so noticeable and, personally, so heart-wrenching in its authenticity. The way that Veronica Roth took care to make Tris' reaction realistic definitely wins me over.

That having been said, the romance was definitely a prime contender for things I liked about this book. There's a real relationship in this novel between Tris and Four; and that thought really struck me as I realized how imperfect it was. Here were two people, each with secrets and fears and pain, and these things really affected their way of relating to each other. What makes their relationship still swoony and romantic is the fact that - time and again, they choose to be with each other and to love each other.

Of course, I'm probably biased since I fell madly in love with Four in the first book.

At the end of Insurgent, just as with Divergent, there's another major twist in Tris and Four's world - and it really took me by surprise, if I'm honest. I was not expecting it at all and I'm actually quite excited to see where Veronica Roth is going to take us in the next installment of the Divergent series.

So yes, reading this book is a MUST. 

(And if you haven't read Divergent yet, well, you have this summer to remedy that, yes?)