Insurgent - Veronica Roth

Remember how I said I hadn't read Insurgent yet? Well, that was a lie. I managed to squeeze a little time in between parts one and two of book three of Game of Thrones. (Yeah. Yeah.) Not to mention that the book reads ridiculously fast. It's definitely something you can get through in a few hours.

Insurgent picks up literally right where the last book left off. Tris is on her way out of Abnegation Territory and headed who knows where while still reeling from everything that has just happened to her and everything she has discovered about the world she lives in. Suffice it to say, things are not going to get any easier for her.

I had the disadvantage before reading this to be working in the Children's department of HarperCollins and helping manage a blog contest for the Insurgent release. While, of course, the job was amazing, having to read thirty plus reviews of a book I meant to read before I could even touch it was super hard and put expectations in my head. I don't want to do that to you but I do want to address some things that I had read over and over in all the other YA blogs.

Firstly, I want to talk about Four. There are such differing opinions on him! Some reviewers think he is heaven come to earth. Others think he is a controlling bastard. I went into the book knowing there were conflicting views and have to say, the people that called him controlling are very much in the wrong. I'm not saying he's a perfect little daisy (I would not date him, if we're being honest. But I wouldn't be Dauntless either, so there you go), but what you really have to look at when reading is how he acts in relation to how Tris is doing. 

You see, Tris isn't doing that well in this book. If you've read Divergent, you know that she went through a lot in the last fourth of the book and is obviously now going to have some issues. What you might not realize as she had been so badass in book one, is that she is still very much a young girl and doing what she had to do is going to scar anyone, let alone her. She reacts badly, to say the least. Is it understandable? Yes. But blaming Four for his reactions seems odd to me. If I were in his shoes, I'd act the same. That's just the truth. He had reason to worry about Tris and he did. End of story.

As for Tris, well, she was getting a tad bit on my nerves, I have to admit. While I do admire her tough, go-get-em style, she does grate on me a bit as too Sometimes I feel like her character is too much a reaction to the pansy heroines of earlier YA (coughTwilightcough) and goes too far in the opposite direction. While I want to like her for being unique in not being some sort of perfect action girl, I guess her flaws are just the kind of things that would make me dislike her in real life and that's a bit hard to get over. 

I don't want this to sound like a negative review, though. It isn't! The plot is really well thought out and interesting, twisting and turning from moment to moment so that you really don't know which way is up. Part of the reason it reads so fast is that you sit down and don't realize you've read forty pages until you look up. It pulls you in and doesn't let you go until it's good and ready. I do really enjoy that.

The other unfortunate thing about reading the reviews, though, was knowing that there was some big twist at the end that no one wanted to spoil. Now, I'm not going to spoil it either, obviously, but I do want to say that if you're aware there's a twist and you're reading carefully, it's not going to be that much of a surprise. It is an interesting direction to take the novel but it is not very shocking as there is appropriate lead up to it. I would like to think that if I wasn't looking for a twist, I would have still seen it coming. Is it a good plot point? We'll see in future books. Is it surprising? Not especially.

Should you read Insurgent? Yes, yes you should. The series is turning out to be super original and interesting, a fun take on a slightly overdone genre. Plus, with the first two titles being Divergent and Insurgent, aren't you just dying to find out the title of the next? Convergent? Resurgent? Non-urgent? Detergent? We'll just have to wait and see.

Divergent - Veronica Roth

As the long-anticipated sequel to Divergent came out last month (and sits unread on my window sill, thanks to Game of Thrones), it seems only right to write up a review that probably should have been posted oh, I don't know, last year.

Divergent tells the story of a girl named Beatrice who lives in a dystopian version of Chicago. This new world has divided itself into five factions: Abnegation characterized by their selflessness, Candor known for their penchant for telling the truth in all situations, Erudite who value knowledge above all, Amity who promote kindness and Dauntless who think only the strong need survive. Each child has a brief test before their sixteenth birthday where they find out which faction they are most suited for and, in a brief ceremony, decide upon their new home.

Now, Beatrice (who will go by Tris for most of the novel so I'll switch to that) has a very different experience. When she undergoes the test, she is told by the now very distressed tester that she is Divergent, meaning that she has the traits of more than one faction. She is warned that she must never tell anyone this fact and has a very tough choice to make at her faction choosing.

I'm not going to say any more than that about the plot. I've really only told you the first two chapters or so. The reason I'm keeping my mouth shut is that I knew next to nothing about the book when I started it and I think that's a good way to go into it. The world that Roth has created is so new and imaginative, not knowing the basic plot made me keep guessing all the way up until the end. It's nice diving headfirst into something with no prior knowledge. It keeps you on your toes.

Suffice it to say, this is another one of those dystopian YA novels with a strong female heroine. They seem to be all the rage these days. However, I kind of like this trend. Not only is each dystopian world completely unique and inventive, I will never deny anyone the chance to portray girls as strong characters that are heroes in their own right, not relying on a man or love interest to save the day. Tris does not need anyone to watch her back. She is strong, even to the point of being cruel sometimes. She is definitely no little girl that needs saving. I wouldn't go so far as to say that she is a good role model for the young girls that are reading these novels as there are aspects of her that annoy me. However, the fact that she can be a flawed character does add to her charm. Not to mention the lessons she is teaching girls. Go out and save the world yourself; you don't have to wait for your sparkly supernatural boyfriend to help you.

Divergent has lots of twists and turns that will keep you reading until you reach the last sixty or so pages where you will find it hard to put down. The end is completely different from the rest of the book and so intense that you won't be quite sure what you're reading until it's over. The ending is one hell of a cliffhanger which is why I'm glad Insurgent is waiting on my bookshelf for me to pick it up. Can't wait to find out what happens next.

P.S. My friend Katrina recently reviewed Divergent (and has a yummy recipe to go with it!) Check it out here!