Insurgent (Divergent #2)

#826
Title: Insurgent (Divergent #2)
Author: Veronica Roth
Publisher: HarperCollins
Year: 2012
525 pages

While this advances the story to an interesting point, I found it hard to get through. The timing seemed off (push, push, push, then sudden sagging, listless moments of teen bickering or love) and the characters very similar to each other in tone (though the Dauntless are hotheaded, Abnegation self-sacrificing, etc.). The trickiness of the story (for example, who's a spy, who's a counter-spy, etc.) was wearing after awhile and became hard to follow. Through it all, Mary Sue Tris is heroic, self-evaluative, insightful, smart, and impossible to wound in any meaningful way.

At its best, it moves from themes of identity and group pride (in Divergent) to ability and empathy here. That's a good direction for a YA novel, especially one about factions, belonging, and complexity.