Insurgent

A bit of a weak follow-up to Divergent, but still an interesting story. I struggled a bit through the first half, since it felt like the main character was just being shuttled from place to place in order to view plot-relevant events that were out of her control. Also, the story struggled with pinning down the exact cause of her depression: the book spends hundreds of pages examining her guilt about killing her friend only to tack on her apparent suicidal thoughts about her parent's deaths later. Both were completely plausible and understandable, but when one was discussed the other was forgotten for a while. Then there is the increased focus on minor characters that I barely remembered from the first book that were suddenly painted as being very important to Tris, complete with a deathbed coming out of the closet moment that was confusing at best in terms of its intent.

However, those were my main complaints. I enjoyed the second half of the book a lot more than I enjoyed the first, mainly because of the action scenes and the examination of why and how each faction is breaking apart. I also enjoyed the foreshadowing that led up to the final reveal; it left enough clues that I could make a guess, but not enough that all of the surprises were ruined. I'm glad that I already have the last book so that I can see how this all ends!

Full review on Reader's Dialogue: readersdialogue.blogspot.com/2013/02/insurgent.html

Insurgent picks up right where Divergent leaves off, in the aftermath of the carnage caused by Erudite's scheme. At first, the characters are all trying to recover form the crazy ordeal, but soon they start strategizing as to how they can stop the Erudites and Dauntless traitors.

From then on, it's non-stop action! Running around the entire city, from Abnegation headquarters to Amity's farms, Tris and her friends and allies go step by step to figure out what happened and why, and how they could stop it. The action is all brilliantly described, so that I felt like I was watching it unfold before my eyes. And the balance of introspection and calmer planning times is great also - especially when those quiet moments are burst into with a new surprising twist.

The surprises keep coming thick and fast throughout the whole book. Just when you think you've figured it out, just when Tris thinks she knows whom she can trust, everything is turned on its head in ways you'd never have imagined.

And just wait for the end for those surprises...

Our book club selection for February. We pick up exactly where Divergent left off, with Tris, Four, and crew escaping after the simulation attack. I didn't enjoy this one as much as Divergent, but I am curious to see how this saga will end. I would say on a scale of 1 to 10, Tris was an 8 on the annoying / bad decision scale for the majority of the book. The overarching theme of this book seems to be trust--who do you trust, and why? How does this shape your decisions and who you become? How does Tris's inability to trust impact her decisions? How does Four's decision to trust Evelyn over Marcus impact his decisions? And what will the fallout be from the revelations at the end? Looking forward to Divergent #3 this winter.