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The Lost Entwife
, March 06, 2014
(view all comments by The Lost Entwife)
This is my week of exploring the world of Veronica Roth, captured in the books of the Divergent trilogy. I remain solidly in the four stars rating after reading Insurgent, let me just start off with that. Roth continued the pace set up by the first book of the trilogy and her world grew stronger with the revelation of new and interesting twists and turns. This review will have some spoilers (unavoidable in subsequent series book reviews) so if you haven't read Divergent, I urge you to do so first.
Still, Insurgent also solidified my deep dislike of the romance angle. I admire both Tris and Four - but together they seem weakened. All the strength that Roth built up with Tris's training and testing in Divergent seemed to be taken away by admiration for a boy. More so than admiration, out and out lust. I'm sorry, but I find it supremely unbelievable that in the middle of all the chaos taking place in Insurgent, anyone's mind would be on finding a corner to make out in. Especially considering what all Tris goes through up until the end of Insurgent.
That little rant over, let me talk about what I really loved in Insurgent. I loved that Roth kicks it up a notch. Just when I thought I had things figured out, she sweeps aside the dust from the foundation she built in Divergent and begins to build the first story of the house. That first story remains pretty solid, given the foundation that was laid out. Without the groundwork done, there were a few elements of Insurgent that would have come off as weak or far-fetched, but I really didn't have a problem believing in the story, which honestly surprised me. I found myself really and truly buying in to what I was reading.
Insurgent is one of the more strong middle books I've read in a trilogy in quite some time. There was a definite plan laid out and movement toward an end goal, something I really appreciated. I put down the book thinking that it gave me something to mull over and, had I needed to wait for the third book (but I didn't so yay me), I think Insurgent would have given me enough to tide me over.
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