Insurgent: A Watery YA Sequel

Because I preordered the third installment of the Divergent trilogy, Allegiant, and I knew I would receive it around October 22nd, I wanted to read the 2nd book in the series, Insurgent.  The first book, Divergent, introduced a fantasy world constructed with the teenage girl audience in mind.  Lots of kissing, lots of breathless moments of the hot leader protecting the not so pretty, but really determined heroine, Tris.  The world itself was imaginative enough to hold my interest with the five factions- Dauntless, Amity, Candor, Erudite, and Abnegation (which oddly all seem to be dominated by teenagers with the exception of a few adult leaders), and the gutsy Dauntless initiation rituals.  When the faction inspired war began by the end of the first book, my interest waned a bit, but I still wanted to continue on to the 2nd and ultimately the 3rd book in the series.

Admittedly, Sci-Fi / Fantasy books are not my thing.  I love it, though, when a new author creates something that people love to read enough that they start buzzing about it.  Because a Divergent movie is in the not too distant future and the 3rd book was just released, I wanted to read this series to have an opinion.

Unfortunately, Insurgent, the 2nd book in the Divergent trilogy,  is a fluffy read - hardly any substance but teeming with an overabundance of teenage relationship angsty moments in the midst of a war that seems watery itself.  Tris just seems stupid to me in the 2nd installment, and Tobias (Four) also comes off as a jerk - moody, aloof, and then mushy all at once.  He lost his hard, edgy, mystique from the first book, and comes across more like a controlling boyfriend.

I found myself skimming pages, and wanting the inner dialogue of Tris and her self esteem issues to end as quickly as possible.  Rather than showing her fearless side, in this book, we see more of her Divergent tendencies, but they are all overridden by her attachment to Tobias.  I found the capture and torture of her rather boring, and the plans and attack strategies contrived and a bit cliche.  It really wasn't until the very end of this book that I felt mildly entertained and even considered picking up the 3rd book.

I know most teenage girls will completely disagree with me, and anyone who fell in love with the first book probably LOVED the second book, but now I need to either wade through my murky 2nd book emotions or scrap the series with one more book to go.

I've never been a quitter, so I vow to give Veronica Roth one more chance.  Right now she is 50/50 in my book, so maybe Allegiant will change my mind and tip my book scales more in her favor.

Attention Teenage Girls Ages 13-19

Divergent by Veronica Roth (movie release March 2014)

No wonder all my female high school students told me I had to read Veronica Roth's book Divergent. No wonder I could never quite keep it on my classroom library shelf.  No wonder all the girls who read the first one cheered when the second book in the series "Insurgent" finally came out last year.  No wonder they kept asking me when the third book "Allegiant" would be out.

If you know any teenage girl who read "The Hunger Games" and loved one or all of the trilogy, and you haven't seen this particular teenage girl reading anything lately because she can't find anything that is as good as "The Hunger Games," you need to hook this particular girl up with Veronica Roth's "Divergent" trilogy. Do it now before the Spring 2014 movie hype (watch the movie trailer ), and the last book in the trilogy called "Allegiant" (release date October 22, 2013) hits book stores.  The loud whir of teenage girl hysteria will reach a high squeal at this point, and there may be too many spoilers for a true reading experience.

I am not a teenage girl, but I really enjoyed "Divergent" and Roth's imaginative post apocalyptic Chicago society where each 16 year old, at the Choosing Ceremony, must decide which of the five factions that they want to belong to:
Candor: The Honest
Abnegation: The Selfless
Dauntless: The Brave
Amity: The Peaceful
or
Erudite: The Intelligent

This one choice directs their path for the rest of their lives.  If a 16 year old chooses their own faction, they are treated better than if they essentially defect from their family faction and join a new identity.

Sixteen year old Beatrice Prior whose faction aptitude test (designed to help the teenagers choose their fate and faction) was deemed inconclusive and "Divergent" (a word not to be mentioned or talked about in the society as her test administrator tells her "Divergence is extremely dangerous") decides to go against her Abnegation faction and instead chooses to join Dauntless who her father calls "the hellions" due to their fearless, almost reckless, adrenaline junkie ways.  Beatrice who nicknames herself Tris must first past the violent and mentally exhausting initiation to be accepted as Dauntless and rank well enough not to be cast out as factionless.

The concept is very much like "The Giver," or "Anthem," or "The Hunger Games," or many dystopian society books, but Roth also adds the angsty teenage female touch that makes this like reading a dystopian Sarah Dessen book.  Girls will drool over Four, one of the initiation leaders in Dauntless who chooses to both humiliate and protect Tris from the more blood thirsty leaders and initiates.  They will gush over the love story painted through the characters who are suffering and surviving in a very divided world where certain factions are deemed weak, and others are morphing into something they were never meant to be.

I finished this book quickly.  I felt breathless during some of the Dauntless initiation tasks.  I got a little gooey with the blossoming of new love.  As a grown woman, I did feel myself sometimes internally cringing at all the teenage love stuff, but . . . I still read it and enjoyed this page turner.

In Roth's dystopian society, she uncovers many truths of humanity - like what divides us is usually what unites us, that we all contain traits of each faction, and the age old question: is blood truly thicker than water?

As soon as I finished "Divergent," I quickly picked up "Insurgent" and am already half way through it.  I already pre-ordered third installment, "Allegiant," which will be out later this month.

If you have a teenage girl who needs a good book, get her hooked on this series.  She'll thank you for it.