Book Review: Divergent and Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Divergent and Insurgent by Veronica Roth.

Genre: Dystopian

Level: YA

Source: Bought

Rating: 3 stars for Divergent, 4 stars for Insurgent

The Divergent Trilogy is probably the most popular and most anticipated young adult dystopian trilogies since The Hunger Games. I don't need to write a review of these two books, seeing as there are so many out there and most people have read them at this point, but I wanted to get my feelings about them down anyway. I'm reviewing them together because it's hard for me to separate them at this point and I think if you are going to read Divergent, you need to read Insurgent.

Divergent follows main character Tris through her life as a teenager in a future Chicago, where the society is divided into five different factions based on one dominating characteristic. The five characteristics and factions are: Honesty (Candor), Bravery (Dauntless), Selflessness (Abnegation), Peaceful (Amity), and Brainy (Erudite). At age 16, each member of the society must choose their faction and, if need be, leave their family to join their new faction. Tris leaves her family's faction (Abnegation) to join the Dauntless. Divergent follows her struggles through the initiation process and living in her new faction. She finds some new friend, makes some enemies, and meets Four, one of her initiation leaders and the boy she has a crush on. The end of the book brings lots of action and we see the beginning of the fall of their society. Insurgent picks up right after the end of Divergent and follows Tris and Four and the rest of the factions as they come to terms with the direction their society is heading and the chance of a war among the factions.

In all honesty, I was not as taken with Divergent as most people were. I was a little put off by Tris and the fact that most of the book seemed to be the Dauntless beating up on each other. It seemed to me that Tris was a bit too oblivious, both with Four and his feelings and with how the Dauntless (and all of the factions within the society) really lived and coexisted. But she was otherwise a strong female lead, willing to stick up for herself and her friends and loyal to both her new friends and her old faction. The end was exciting when all of the action started happening and we learned more about the society. I wished there had been a better way to end the book rather than having all of those characters die, but I was also glad that it seemed like an actual probable event. Sometimes authors go to crazy lengths making sure no characters die, I'm kind of glad Roth didn't go there. Overall, I was pretty happy that I read Divergent. It's no Hunger Games, to me at least, but it is the beginning of what will hopefully be a great dystopian trilogy.

And if Divergent is the beginning of a great story, Insurgent does a fantastic job of leading us right up to the grand finale. There is no second book syndrome here. In fact, I was a much bigger fan of Insurgent than I was of Divergent. We get a bigger look at the society, more information on the rest of the factions, less brooding on Tris' part about her own situation, and a surprise ending that promises to make the final book incredible. The relationship between Four and Tris experiences some rocky moments and the action in the book is nonstop. I sometimes needed some downtime myself from the book just to process everything that was happening. It was intense. And like any great dystopian, we are left wondering who among our friends and allies can we actually trust? I am still blown away by the ending of this book.

It took me a while to pick up Insurgent because I wasn't a huge fan of Divergent, but I'm so glad I did. There is a big cliffhanger though, so if you have yet to read any of them, you could save all of them until the last one comes out (sometime in the Fall of 2013). Then you won't be left hanging. They are long but quick reads and perfect for the YA dystopian genre. Even if you aren't fans of dystopian books, I recommend you check these out at some point. I hope Veronica Roth will continue to surprise me in the last Divergent book and in whatever else she may write. I gave Divergent 3 stars and Insurgent 4 stars.