We are back to Veronica Roth, who studied writing and wrote the bestselling Divergent Series some time ago and achieved world wide success… her books were turned into films very quickly as it so happens with the modern dystopian novels.
Insurgent is the second book in Divergent series and first came out in 2012. This story describes what happens after the first book and the attacks – how society is split up, what they think and believe in and they are faced with the decision making – how to act in order to save the city and the population, if it needs saving at all. You will also see continuation and development to relationship between Tris and Four, their disagreements, anger and love, yet although they both claim to be loving each other, they make some very controversial decisions that gives place to doubt.
Insurgent follows Divergent basically without a pause and it doesn’t explain much of what happened before, so, if you haven’t read the first part, do not pick the second one up, you will most likely dislike it terribly, because of lack of knowledge about what happened and what the book is about.
arning: Strong language used in this review.
I gave the first book a chance, because although many things didn’t make sense, I tried to look over it and kind of enjoyed the first book. But that was not the case with the second book at all.
First of all I noticed how horrible the writing is – the sentences are really short, badly built, repetitive expressions and words are used to describe different things… And I couldn’t help but wonder – did I really manage to ignore it that much while reading the first book or has the writing gone so so bad? But even if we would assume that the writing is alright and I am just really picky, why would any author describe things that are not important, besides – do it badly?
So here’s the deal – imagine that you walk into a room and your goal is to get out of it as fast as possible and you have a clear idea how to do it (through door, perhaps?), yet, instead of leaving, you just stand there and memorize that there are few chairs and tables, that there’s a blackboard and you can conclude that it most likely used to be a classroom. Once you have done that, you just leave the room and never ever return there and never ever does the fact that it was a classroom matters.
That is how bad the writing was – it was not enough that Mrs Roth made the content boring, the author had to include useless descriptions “to give the scene” although “the scene” doesn’t even matter (just say that the room looked like classroom and you left, how hard is that?).. It honestly felt like she was trying to make the book longer, like a student does when he is writing his final paper and is missing a page but doesn’t have anything to add to the work, so he just writes random things that don’t really matter, but doesn’t really hurt. Yeah, but this time it did and it annoyed me so, so much!
But lets move on to the content I referred to as boring. This book is so long, yet nothing in it happens.
Tris and Four are full of shit, people who claim to love each other are just assholes to each other and fail to be honest to one another about every single thing in their lives. Everything that they say to one another is lies or they are keeping something from each other, it is so frustrating and stupid. After reading the last few young adult books (DUFF, Fill in Boyfriend, Insurgent), it honestly seems like lying is the biggest issue in the modern youngster’s life, because every single young adult book is based on lies and it is a shitty base, because, if you would just say that you don’t fucking agree or that your boyfriend broke up with you (reference to the previous book I read), your friends better fucking accept it! How is it alright to just go around and lie about every single thing, opinion and action? I think that a lie is a stupid and lazy base for a book or a relationship in a book. And this book is even sillier because characters say words like “I trusted you” when they clearly didn’t, which just makes them hypocrites, really.
I felt excited while reading this book just once and it was the truth serum part (as for many), I did feel a bit cheated because it wasn’t as amazing as I expected, but it wasn’t half bad either, so it was interesting enough to not be a disappointment. But the rest of the book isn’t the best piece.
Most of this book the characters just wander around and try to figure out a big secret and what to do next. I don’t know how Mrs Roth imagined the wandering in her head, but on paper it was terrible – not much happens in the places they are going to, but we get a full description of the trip there and back. We also get full descriptions of fight scenes which are described exactly in the same way every single time and you can imagine that reading the same thing over and over again is not much fun.
Lets move on to the characters! My favourite character in this book was Peter. I already liked him in the previous book, because he kind of had some bad ass moves, but unfortunately Roth made him in a cliche of an cocky big mouthed asshole, yet in this book, he changed and his character (didn’t make sense) was shown in different perspective. Sure it was quite easy to understand what he is going to do and what is his motivation, but still I liked him.
My least favourite character was Tris, she trained her body and mind to become Dauntless, yet, she was whining like a little bitch all book long. Sure the author most likely tried to show some mental damage that this kind of experience does to a person, but it is just big pile of bullshit when one has to read it. If Tris is going to be like this the third book too, lets make Christina the main character, shall we? She is cool, fun, funny, strong and smart, she can deal with all those things and pull herself together, she is a true Dauntless, a true hero.
So, yes, I don’t have much good to say about this book, it received one star from me on my goodreads page and I will read the last one (because there’s just one left), but I wouldn’t recommend this book at all, I guess, if you seriously loved Divergent, this is for you, but as I only kind of liked it, but had huge troubles with logic, then this one hit that spot even more.
Divergent – the movie.
Since the last time, I also watched Divergent the film. It’s not like I didn’t like it, I just kind of expected it to be for more mature audience. I don’t like in general this soft approach to massive blood shedding books, because it takes away from the atmosphere, characters and reasoning. I would have loved at least one of those episodes (like the knife in the eye one) and I hated it how it looked on the screen – Eric said, that “you fight until one of you cannot continue” and yet, Tris walks away with barely a bruise on her chin? Really? Were they so busy trying to keep her beautiful in order to be likable? Or what was about that?
But I have to give kudos about the “beauty” – we had some really ugly scenes, like ones with crying or sleeping. Usually these “ugly” scenes are still made beautiful – camera from the right angle to not show double chin, crying looks like just tears are shedding, but nose doesn’t get red and eyes don’t become puffy (like for us mortals), but this film showed it all, which was funny, disgusting and good at the same time.
What I did like about the film though was Eric. Oh, I loved him. He looked completely different from the description (as all the characters in the film, by the way), but his new film personality was awesome! I also liked Kate Winslet, she was pretty cool as the evil lady.
As always the film was not enough to show the main important things (like the fact that Al was a friend who betrayed Tris) in order to give them meaning (it just seemed like a random dude from her class killed himself so he wouldn’t have to be factionless).
So here it is, the beloved book everyone has been talking about for years. Let me know in the comments what you though of it!
March 24, 2016 at 14:38
I read the first one and wasn’t impressed at all. Having studied and taught writing, it feels very much like a student’s work. I don’t think that Roth is an inherently bad writer, but she certainly needs to practice and get some experience in writing for her books to get the polish that many other published books have.
Unfortunately, I also had way too many people tell me that this series is better than the Hunger Games, and it simply isn’t. Hunger Games has its flaws as well, but it’s so much better crafted. Then again, I live in Chicago, so people might just love it for the references. Who knows. Great review, I loved reading your thoughts and very much agree for the most part.
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March 24, 2016 at 15:02
I agree that Hunger Games had more logic behind the idea, yet I read the first two books in my native language, so I cannot really compare writing, but as protagonist, I definitely like Katniss better.
Oh, and the Chicago references – I actually felt that it is really stupid that suddenly in this book threw some street names at me, because I lived under the impression that Tris didn’t know the town very well and all those names just seemed weird, especially because it seemed like extra information I don’t need. But thanks to you, I now see the significance – how I look at all books/films that are about London and that most likely for many who know well Chicago it is also at least a bit exciting.
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March 24, 2016 at 15:20
OMG I loved your review because I could just relate! I hated the last two books to this series, although this whole series was very badly executed, but it was a good idea, which is a shame.
After the first novel, as you pointed out the writing, the plot, the characters just dipped and it was like Veronica Roth forgot how to write. At least the third wasn’t as bad as the second, so I give you some hope, and hopefully you won’t find it so wasteful as a read as this one was. I also thought the film was a waste of two hours- why was the movie 2 hours?!?! It was long, and like the book, beat around the bush, not getting to the point, and everything just moved so slow. It makes me debate if I should bother watching the last film. I can’t wait to hear what you think of the last novel! 🙂
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March 24, 2016 at 21:17
Ah, a little ray of sunshine that the last one won’t be as bad. I hope you are right, I will probably read it sometime in April or May, once I’ve watched the second film and will definitely write a review on it. 🙂
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March 25, 2016 at 17:28
I hope you don’t expect too much from the film, it was mediocre at best. I can’t wait to hear what you think of both the film & the last novel 🙂
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March 24, 2016 at 18:50
I really liked the first book, but the last two in the trilogy were really boring and badly written, as you said in your review. 🙂
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March 24, 2016 at 19:32
I absolutely agree with you, the second book was insufferable! And it was a shame since I actually liked the first one.
Well, I must say you are in for the ride of your life in the next installment… Just not a very pleasant one.
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March 24, 2016 at 21:12
I laughed so much at your comment! 😀
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March 25, 2016 at 19:25
Thank you. xD
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March 25, 2016 at 16:38
Some very insightful thoughts here. Thank you for writing this.
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March 26, 2016 at 15:05
I always enjoy the first book in a series the best. I think I like exposition and world building and always find myself disappointed by resolutions. That being said, I did enjoy these books for the story. However, I work with middle school and high school kids and tend to come at books from their perspectives.
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March 27, 2016 at 14:48
I agree about the writing style! I remember aching for more prose, more description. Enjoyed this review xD
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March 29, 2016 at 11:59
Very interesting analysis. I agree that many of these wildly popular YA books have bad writing, but I love them anyway, and I have often wondered why that is so! LOL
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March 31, 2016 at 01:12
I kind of liked Divergent when I first read it, but soon after realised I only liked it because of the hype. It’s typical YA dystopian, now that I think about it. And I don’t read dystopian anymore. There’s just too much of it. Reminds me of the twilight-copycat phase a few years back haha
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April 18, 2016 at 11:40
So true about the writing.
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July 2, 2016 at 14:01
I felt the same. Tris’s character truly weakened in this book and she was reduced to a shell of the heroine we saw in Divergent.
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July 3, 2016 at 17:36
I still have the last book ahead of me and the second movie, so I hope that the pause I’m taking will help and I will like it better. 🙂
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July 3, 2016 at 23:12
I liked Divergent when I read it (although it was a few years ago) and I remember enjoying Allegiant, but Insurgent just seemed like a filled book. I think there was some fighting, some arguing, a weird way of the government finding out which people were divergent and I don’t even remember the rest. The plots of Divergent and Allegiant, with a few chapters in between, could have made a good book and sequel but I think stretching it into a trilogy ruined Insurgent. For once, I preferred the film because it had an actual plot.
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