Book Bingo: Insurgent

Insurgent by Veronica Roth is the second book in the Divergent Trilogy. In this continuation, Tris and Four take their small band of survivors to a peaceful location and begin sifting through the events of the first book. After they leave, things begin to spiral violently toward war, and the main characters must keep track of who is telling the truth and who is lying in order to save their society. If you'd like to read my review of Divergent (the first book in the series), you can find it here.

(picture taken from Goodreads;

faction symbol art by Rhythm & Hues Design;

jacket art and design by Joel Tippie)

First Impression: Tris almost seems like a different person . In the last book, she acted for the support and assistance of others; now she seems to think and act primarily of herself. Little details seem to be changed about her as well. Her fear of intimacy, which was central to her character before, seems non-existent now. She's just bothering me all around, and it's really distracting from everything else.

Conclusion: There's not a lot that I can say about this book, because there are many secrets revealed as you read. I will say that if you make it past the beginning of the book, the second half speeds by like lightning. And my early concerns about Tris's character were somewhat justified due to the trauma she endured in the first book. Apparently her personality changes were a result of that. Tris is not my favorite character, but I like her better when she regains some of her strength and originality. I don't think that Roth has great writing technique, but most of the time she sticks with her strong suit, which is action. She spirals events one into another and out of control until it ends suddenly, and there is one solid act to connect the reader to the next book.

Recommendation: You should read this book if you read Divergent and liked it or if you just want to know what happens to the characters. It won't make any sense at all if you didn't read the first book.

Insurgent is my seventh "Series" choice for the 2014 Book Bingo Challenge. Thanks for reading!