Insurgent by Veronica Roth

(I tried very hard not to put spoilers for either book in this post and think I succeeded, but read at your own risk.)

Insurgent is the sequel to Divergent, which was one of my favorite books from last year. It picks up exactly where Divergent left off. I was so anxious to get Insurgent. This was probably my most anticipated book of the year and I put my name in for it at our library before they even ordered it. (At my old library you could do this online and I regularly requested quite a few titles. At the new library, which is much smaller, you have to do it in person and they write it on a little slip of paper. I feel much more greedy doing it in person and so rarely do.) The book finally came in and I rushed down to pick it up - and then it sat on my shelf for nearly the entire month. The thing is, while I loved Divergent, I don't love suspense that much. In fact, left to my own devices, when faced with a book that is crazy non-stop action, I'll repeatedly set it down in favor of internal suspense. (This is hard for me to define in words, it's a specific type of tension that kills me, not all tension.) But then, the due date came and there were other people on the hold list, so I forced myself to read it.

With an intro like that, you might suspect that I disliked the book, that it was torture to read. This would not be the case! I enjoyed it very much.  Insurgent is a non-stop ride. The action picks up immediately and there is not a break until the end for the reader or the characters. The factions are at full out war and it's hard to know who to trust.  Tris is devastated from events at the end of Divergent, which colors her actions for the entirety of Insurgent. She has to examine her loyalty and decide which faction, if any, she will follow. For much of the book she is at odds with Four, unable to explain herself to him out of dueling feelings of grief and guilt. Meanwhile, the Divergent are being hunted and she's desperate to figure out why and feels responsible for the group if she doesn't. Roth doesn't hold anything back either, in terms of character actions or plot development, with unpredictable results.

Overall, it's a whirlwind of a book with hardly a moment to catch your breath. For the first time in my life I read the last few pages when I was about a hundred pages from the end, just to reassure myself. I closed the book wishing I had the third book in the series in hand.

Insurgent
Veronica Roth (Tumblr) (Twitter)
Katherine Tegan Books
2012
544 pages