Insurgent by Veronica Roth

title: Insurgent
written by: Veronica Roth
series: Divergent #2
genre: Young Adult, dystopia
pages: 525
publication date: May 1st, 2012
published by: HarperTeen

One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.


Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

“Insurgent,” he says. “Noun. A person who acts in opposition to the established authority, who is not necessarily regarded as a belligerent.”

I had been smart, and had kept my expectations of Insurgent very low, so I wouldn't be utterly disappointed in it. It was a completely unnecessary thing to do, I found out while reading. Insurgent is one of these books that completely blew my mind. I just finished it 5 minutes ago, and I still am kind of speechless. I liked Insurgent even better than Divergent, and that was one of my favourite books of 2011. 


Tris and the other characters show a lot of development. Only, character development is not a very accurate way to describe it. I could better day that it was a whole character transformation. The way the title of this book describes Tris 2.0, it's amazing. I can imagine Veronica Roth reading through a dictionary searching for a perfect name for this book, then stumbling upon the word Insurgent. I can almost imagine her squeeing and doing the happy dance. It's something I would do if I were her... :) 


Tris's character has grown from a little girl into a full-grown powerful independent women. Even though she still is very small looking from the outside, which btw really adds something to her character. She isn't Beatrice anymore. Tobias 'Four' also showed a lot of charcter development. The most important to me was a change in his fears, about which I can't talk without spoiling the story... Then there are some new characters, and some old ones who, sometimes very unexpectedly, returned.


Immediately after the ending of Divergent, Insurgent started. This was pretty hard for me. It had been over 4 months since I'd read Divergent, and I had forgotten lots of character names, and quite a lot of the plot. After a few chapters I was completely sucked up by the story again, and all my questions about what happened to who in Divergent disappeared. The story continues, but there are some massive changes in the structure of the soceity. War between the Factions if luring around the corner, and friends aren't who they seemed to be. Tris reminds me of Katniss a lot, and the plot of Insurgent reminded me a lot of Mockingjay's plot. They weren't really the same, but they just shared some similarities I couldn't avoid seeing. The story kept me interested from the title until the very last word.


The ending  already has me craving for the next -and final :c- book in this series. It doesn't even have a title :o! I wish I had it right now. Accio Divergent #3! Does anyone have the blueprints for a time machine? I really need one at the moment.


What did you think of Insurgent? Share it in the comments below :)
rating: 6/5 stars :) -Yeah, to me that seems completely possible-


xo Mar

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Hellowz everyone


First of all: happy 2012! <3
now here's a review for y'all ;)


book: Divergent
written by: Veronica Roth
genre: young adult, dystopian, fantasy
pages:  487
own / library / borrowed
release date:  May 3th 2011
series?:  yes, Divergent #1
publisher: Katherine Tegen Books


note: I feel very stupid for not having read this book before. I loved this book, and it's one of the best I've read this whole year. (and it's the last day of the year, so it means a lot when I say it's one of the best of the year) I do totally get why this is the book of the year on goodreads. This is my last review of the year, and I think that it's a good closer of the year, or however you say that :)


the book:
It is the future. Beatrice is just a normal girl, 16 years old. She looks younger, but doesn't know that because she can not watch into mirrors. That's because she belongs to the faction Abnegation. People in Abnegation are selfless. On her sixteenth birthday Beatrice has to choose which faction she wants to belong to. Amity, for the people that blame agression. Erudite, for the people that blame ignorance. Candor, for those who blame duplicity. Abnegation, for those who blame selfishness. Or Dauntless, for those who blame cowardice. One day before the choosing cermony, she has an aptitude test, which gives unusual results. Beatrice (later 'Tris') 's  life will not be the same after hearing the results. Which faction is she going to choose. With her choice she surprises everyone, including herself. Then she has to do the initiation tests. But they are harder than they seemed, will she make it to the Faction. During her initiation period friendship and romance play a big role in Tris's life.  But she has to keep her secret, no matter what price.


the book:
OMG I loved this book. Since it's the last day of the year, and the last 4 hours of the year and the last review of the year I will not review the book the usual way... (Okay, I'm just too lazy at the moment but I have to finish this review because it was AWESOME!)
Immediately when you start reading this book, you are sucked into Tris's life. Her life is very interesting, and first you want to be like her. Then you find out that she has a secret, and her life changes because of it. But she stays this awesome character, a strong female, even when everyone picks on her because she is from Abnegation and she looks younger than the rest. She kept on surprising me until the end of the book. 
Then there are the other characters, and some of them were evil, some were not what they seemed. Some were both. All of them were interesting. I want to know more about everyone! But I am most interested in Four. (Yes, his name says enough, it's very interesting, right?! Because you can choose your own name and stuff...) 
the book was beautifully written, not annoying at all, and I loved it, so much! I started reading this book in the middle of the night, and I couldn't put it down, so I read until 3AM. Then I had to stop but the next morning I finished it. In the end I saw it were 478 pages, and I felt like it were only 200. I want more. NOW!!!
The story was very interesting. I want to live in a world like that. It somehow reminded me of the history of the Italian city Siena, and it's history. That city was divided into factions (12 or something) and everyone belonged to a faction. You were born in a faction, and there were old friendships between the factions. Also there were the enemies, that would never be friends... This book with the factions reminded me a lot of that.
Then you have the love in this book, which was awesome. I cannot tell you much about it without spoiling, but I love love loved the romance in this book. 
This book also somehow reminded me of the Hunger Games. If you've read the Hunger Games and loved that series you will love that book!
This book was super interesting and I cannot wait till may for the sequal, Insurgent. 


more:
I feel like answering a question I asked myself when I started reading. 
To which faction do I want to belong?
I do want to belong to Dauntless. The people in this faction seem fearless (almost fearless) and I want to be like them. Only, I know I will never be like them. I think I belong to the Erudite. Intelligence means a lot to me. I would not fit into Candor because I lie to easily, and I do not belong to the Abnegation because I could never be as selfless as them. I do also not belong to Amity, they are never fighting, even when I think they should fight, they won't. They seem weak to me. 


the ending:
I did have it all figured out before finishing the book. I figured out who Four really was. I figured out what would happen. But I did not care that I had it all figured out. It did not make this book less interesting. And there were still things that kept on surprising me :)


rating:
this book gets 5 stars (adôh) and I will call this one of my favourites of 2011, what a great honour ;)


xo Mar


and again, Happy new year! My brains hurt because of the lots of booms of the firework O.o 


(hey, this review did not turn out shorter but longer than usual. YAY :D the book was worth it!!)