Insurgent (Divergent, #2) (Reread)
About the book
Author: Veronica Roth
Publisher: Harper Collins Children’s
More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.
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My review
I first read Insurgent so long ago (in college when it first came out) that I didn’t write a review — but I’m here now! Ahead of The Sixth Faction’s release this fall, I’m revisiting the trilogy that people loved and then hated so much that they bullied Veronica Roth off the internet for years. As a much more mature, skillful reader, I’m coming back to this trilogy determined to decide whether the unpopular decisions Roth made might just have been the right ones for the story she was trying to tell.
I’m having a blast rereading these books. Roth is a heck of a storyteller who can keep you on the edge of your seat no matter what’s going on, and she can sell you on any plot development in the moment (even the ones that may not make a ton of sense upon further scrutiny).
To me, the most noteworthy part of Insurgent how hard it can feel to root for Tris sometimes. She’s got PTSD, she’s deep in the throes of grief, and she’s going through all that as a teenager — of course she’s making terrible decisions and acting insufferable. But just because it makes a kind of sense doesn’t make it fun to read, especially in first person present tense.
I won’t give spoilers just in case, but knowing what I do about Allegiant, I can also appreciate the importance of the mental health journey that Tris goes through in this book. Roth has so much to say about what it means to be brave and what it means to be selfless. I think it’s one of the most moving thematic explorations in any YA SFF series I’ve read, even if she doesn’t quite land the plane in the end.
Content and trigger warnings
Death, murder, and violence
Gun violence
Suicidal ideation
Death of a parent / grief
Child abuse (remembered)
