Reading Insurgent

Insurgent, by Veronica Roth, is the sequel to the fun, thoughtful, action-packed Divergent. There have been mixed reviews of this latest installment in Roth's series, and I land in the camp of people who thoroughly enjoyed it. To me, the pace was in keeping with the first book and with the story -- never letting up, but not rushed. And the depth of the story never suffers from the awesomeness of the action. Like the real world, Roth's world contains a lot of gray - life is messy and complicated and rarely clear clut. But in the midst of that muddle, there's also a few things to hold on to as truth. And I really dig that.

The characters continued to grow and evolve; I love how complex Tris is. One minute, I want to smack her, then next I want to hug her. I often disagree with the decisions she makes, but I respect her, so I want to see how things work out. I also liked that we got to see Tris and Tobias fall in love in the first book, and in the second we get to see their relationship develop (without a there-just-for-tension triangle). We get to see more of Amity and Candor and the inner workings of the factions (slight spoiler - am I the only one who now pictures the people of Amity just being stoned all the time? Happy Bread!). I think it's worth noting that -- as my husband says -- this is the second book in a trilogy, and it reads like the second part of a trilogy. Some stuff happens, and one or two things get sort of resolved, but in the end things are possibly in a bigger mess than when they started.

bottom line - a satisfying second part to an excellent trilogy.