Insurgent

Divergent, Book 2

By: Veronica Roth

Narrated by: Emma Galvin

Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

New York Times best-selling author Veronica Roth's much-anticipated second book of the dystopian Divergent series is another intoxicating thrill ride of a story, rich with hallmark twists, heartbreaks, romance, and powerful insights about human nature.

Motion Picture Artwork TM & © 2015 Summit Entertainment, LLC. All Rights Reserved

©2012 Veronica Roth (P)2012 HarperCollinsPublishers

The wait for book 3 is going to kill me!

I hate big cliffhangers and planned to read this book after the final installment came out in 2013.. However, after reading so many good reviews I finally gave in and decided to read it now instead of waiting. WOW! I'm so glad I did. This was just as good as the first if not better. So much more of the story is revealed and the ending is well worth the listen. Of course now the wait for book 3 is going to kill me!

If you liked Divergent then you will definitely like this one too. Definitely worth a credit for me!

4.5 stars - minus a half star for the long wait for book 3

Insurgent is high octane

Insurgent is high octane, in your face action adventure and less of a transitional book that I have come to expect from a second book in a series. The character development that Roth has been able to achieve is rare, creating multifaceted, interesting, surprising, and believable personalities that I have come to adore, and get upset when unexpected happens. Triss and 4′s adventure continues shortly after the conclusion of the first book and is a non stop ride. At the conclusion of Insurgent many of my original questions, from the first book were answered, but created even more questions to be answered by the third. I am sad to think that there is only one more book in the works. Although my sadness quickly turns to anticipation of not only for the final chapter to the story but also to the movie that Summit Entertainment, hopefully, has in the works.

Eagerly awaiting the sequel!

I bought this book within minutes of completing Divergent, and was engrossed in the story, which I find more complex and interesting than the similarly-themed Hunger Games. The protagonist, Tris, like Katniss, is trying to understand herself in the context of a revolution, blossoming love, and personal loss. Having been raised in a sub-community of selfless people, her deeply rooted compassion softens her otherwise tough and daring persona, and I find her a completely believable and engaging narrator. I'm sure some of this is owing to the excellent reading by Emma Galvin. In this part of the story, readers get many answers to teasers and mysteries suggested since the first book and developed to a greater level of complexity in this book, but the new questions will whet their appetites for what's coming next. This is really impressive storytelling by a new young author, and her fully-imagined social hierarchy is thought-provoking.

Great read.

Where does Insurgent rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

One of the best, all three of these books were great.

What other book might you compare Insurgent to and why?

Maze runner, the intensity and kept my attention. I couldn't stop listening.

What about Emma Galvin’s performance did you like?

Plays a great character.

Enjoyable but not completely convincing

I'm slightly above the young adult age (around twenty five years plus), so consider my opinion taking that into account. You may ask why I read YA books then. Why not? I'm curious.

I enjoyed Insurgent. And I didn't.

The setting is quite compelling, the basic idea is really interesting. How could a society work if people are divided into factions based on their mental attitude? And I arrived to the first point I have problem with. I'm not a sociologist nor psychologist, but I'm sure it cannot work. Humans are not black and white. Humans are not of four clear colour, they cannot be put into boxes. It just doesn't work like that. The idea of creating a society based on this is born dead. But it still could be interesting to see how things can develop in a scenario like this, so I suspended my disbelief and I wanted to know, you know, "what if". It reminded me of religious cults suppressing general truths worshipping only one (often false one). I continued listening as it was an experiment on one possible way to solve the society's serious issues. I put my doubts aside and flowed with the story, and I did enjoy it more. By the end of the book I learned that this environment didn't evolve, but it was established artificially. That helps a little to believe the scenario. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

In the factions individuals start to pup up as divergents, (of course they do, if they didn't the story wouldn't exist), and this society cannot handle them. They blend in pretending having one aptitude or get hunted because they cannot fit in the system. That creates a lot of tension, and gives the floor for the action.

The action moved the story forward, and kept me listening. I really liked the action scenes, those were the best parts of the book. Unfortunately in between there were scenes when the heroin agonized over exaggerated dilemmas. Maybe I've a very simple personality, maybe it was too long time ago when I was teenager, maybe being a man I cannot understand the girls (who can? :) ). Maybe Tris had mental issues. But some of the whining should have been cut out.

I would have enjoyed more world-building. There were some explanations about the supporting equipment like power supply, but I missed some technicalities how they could sustain the supporting services. It was a closed environment after all.

By the way, can somebody tell me who drove the train? People died, factions fought each other, but that damn train still run no matter what.

As I mentioned I'm not in YA age anymore, that may explain my disbelief concerning the hands off love between Four and Tris. At the age of 16-19 teenagers are much more interested in the hands on stuff of sex. It was annoying how the circumstances (or their fears or anger) "accidentally" stopped Four and Tris to get into it more deeply. I don't say there should be explicit sex scenes, not at all. But their love would have been more believable if there were scenes like "Four pulled Tris' shirt off, kissed her on the mouth and... Cut.... Tris smiled at Four and nested herself in his arms with satisfaction". Like in an old movie ;)

The character of Tris is well drawn, we get to know her deepest secrets and fears. She had a special power, she could resist the simulation. Awesome. She is mentally off balance in my opinion, but I gather that was the author's intention. But it didn't help to like her that she made stupid decisions. I mean stupid. For example when she joined Marcus. She loved Four, she knew that Four hates Marcus, she didn't trust Marcus, and didn't have evidence that it was true what he was saying, but she went with him instead of being and fighting on Four's side.

I'm sure my daughter enjoyed the book more, because she already told me she hardly can wait for the third one to come out. She is at the right age, I suppose.

had to force myself to finish this.

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Book one was amazing, couldn't take the headphones off. this one? I had to force myself to finish.

What was most disappointing about Veronica Roth’s story?

it draggggggggeeeeeedddddd on and on and on and on. You got us in Tris' corner in book one. this should have been condensed and added to book three. i needed more of her life in dauntless and she did not give fair play to Tris and 4.

Fun story

Entertaining and an interesting thought experiment. Not quite as well done as The Hunger Games, but still worth it.

Unbelievable in parts

Repetitive in others. After the 2nd time I read, "My eyes go black around the edges," MY EYES went black around the edges. At about the 10th time this phrase was used, they were rolling too hard to see black.

That was far from the worst part though. The worst part was the sheer unbelievability of some characters' thought processes and decisions. Logic seemingly failed at every turn, ostensibly to move the story along. At one point Tris makes a long-thought-out sacrifice to save a few lives, not recognizing that this action puts an entire population (of Divergent) in peril. At another point a faction leader bends to another faction, offering up his people to be injected from a people who just used such injections to enslave minds ... to keep his people "free."

I enjoyed Divergent and enjoy Roth's world-building, so I'll likely read Book 3, hoping some sense of intelligence returns.

An excellent followup

Hat's off to Veronica Roth for another exciting, puzzling, and beautifully written novel.

Beatrice's character definitely goes through some psychological trials in this book which just makes me like her even more. I appreciate that the story line didn't just lollygag to the end like many '2nd books' of dystopian trilogies. This story had just as much going on in it as the first and Roth does a great job in integrating both the first and second novels while setting up for the third in an subtle way.

The ending is SUCH a cliffhanger, I hate that I have to wait for the next book! Loved it!

Self indulgent

A reflection of adolescence: over-simplifying some things, over-complicating others, suffering the leads' self indulgence (and, I'm embarrased to admit, my own in continuing to listen to this series).