Insurgent (Divergent, #2)

by Veronica Roth

[Berls]

This review first appeared at Fantasy is More Fun.

4.5 stars.

I was thrilled to read Insurgent finally, because (1) I want to see the movie and have a strict rule about reading books BEFORE watching the movie and (2) I'm already into the series. Now that I've read Insurgent I'm equally glad it won. I devoured it in just 2 days time and I've already downloaded Allegiant to start on as soon as I'm done writing this review :)

Even though I read Divergent back in November of 2014, I had no trouble picking up where the story left off - although I did have to try and separate in my head the book's version versus the movie's version since they are slightly different. I felt like the pacing in Insurgent was pretty non-stop, which I loved. Even in the lulls there was a lot going on mentally - Tris was either trying to figure out her own feelings, what was happening on a larger scale, or there were developments within the different factions.

There were so many twists and turns in the story, I don't think it's possible to call all the twists - I did call one of the biggest ones (*mental high five* lol) but I wasn't 100% sure of it until literally the last moments of the audiobook. The story just keeps you on your toes. One of the things I really liked was the stress in Tris and Four/Tobias's relationship - particularly because it wasn't caused by the introduction of third person. No love triangles here - just the stress a new relationship would understandably go through in the midst of a rebellion/war/revolution (it's kind of all three) where both partners are deeply involved and don't always agree 100%. I don't necessarily dislike love triangles, but this was still a refreshing change for a YA dystopian.

Needless to say I did really enjoy the story and I can't exactly tell you why I'm not giving it the full five stars, except to say it wasn't quite five stars. *shrug* But 4.5 is pretty damn good, right? Oh and I should totally mention that Emma Galvin does a really good narration - I listened at 1.5 speed and it still sounded really good, with a variety of voices and clear male voices. Not all narrators can handle that increased speed in my opinion, so I'm putting her down on my list of pretty great narrators.

Can't wait to see how this trilogy wraps up (please don't let it have the YA dystopian third book kiss of death....)