Book Review: Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Insurgent by Veronica Roth
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release Date: May 1, 2012
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

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.

***This review will have spoilers for the first book, Divergent, but not for this book.***

This book finds Tris dealing with the emotional aftermath of mortally shooting her good friend. It weighs on her conscience so heavily that she can’t even pick up a gun. She’s also processing the grief of losing her parents. The plot picks up right where Divergent left off. Tris, Tobias and what’s left of Dauntless that is still good seek refuge among the different factions while they formulate a plan to find and kill Jeanine Matthews, leader of the traitor Dauntless.

This book was definitely not as good as the first. The story was confusing at times. Tris and her group moved around so much, I kept having to refer back to see where they were. Also, she and Tobias had their mitts on each other all.the.time. Every other page they were hugging, kissing, holding hands. It was too much and too mushy. I know that they are young and in love but they are also on the run for their lives! I kept thinking about what my college psychology professor taught me. No one thinks about sex when his/her life is in danger. My final criticism is why did Tris and Tobias have to lie to each other so much? I know that the purpose was to insert some conflict into their relationship since there is no love triangle. But the reasons they were lying didn’t seem justified.

This book did have some twists and turns that I didn’t see coming and kept the story exciting. In between Tris and Tobias making out it was action packed. And the secret that is revealed in the end is definitely enough to make me read the third and final book in the trilogy, Allegiant.

Classifying Insurgent as a throwback book is dubious but since I’m the last person in the world to read this book, it counts!

Every Thursday I host Throwback Thursdays. If you you’d like to share a post from the past week about a book from “back in the day”, feel free to grab the button for your post and and link up below. Be sure and link directly to your post, not your blog’s home page. Thanks!