Books to Dream: Insurgent- Book Review

So, if you saw my previous post you'll know that I recently finished reading Insurgent by Veronica Roth, which is the sequel to Divergent. You'll also know that I was pretty crazy about it. So here is my book review to prove to you that I'm NOT crazy, because the book is just so good!

Insurgent by Veronica Roth
Sequel to Divergent
Dystopian/Science-Fiction
525 pages
**** */* (four and a half stars)

“We both have war inside us. Sometimes it keeps us alive. Sometimes it threatens to destroy us.” This dystopian action novel takes places in a future society where it's inhabitants are bound to the values of their faction. In light of this, a bitter rebellion is rising against the Erudite faction. Fuelled by the fury from the barbaric elimination of the Abnegation, the remaining factions plot against the leaders of the disastrous war. In the middle of all the secrets and conflict is Tris Prior, a sixteen-year-old girl with courage, and maybe too much strong-will. Forced to face her divergence, Tris fights against the city itself to disclose the information that could revolutionize the new world... or destroy it.

This book was so packed with action and suspense that I couldn't put it down, even when I wanted to! Roth did a masterful job of keeping her characters real. I felt Tris's pain when she grieved over the losses, and my heart ached when my favourite characters lost their lives in the epic struggle. I understood Tris and her choices and felt like her emotions were believable. And though the book contains a very large amount of violence (the loss of lives I admit is high), there wasn’t excess gore, which I liked. Because of the choices and realizations Tris makes near the end of the book, I discovered the theme is appreciating those you love, and learning to value your own life. The only thing I didn't like was the fact that Roth never explained how the society came to be, and how the factions were initially developed. That being said, I am hoping this will be explained in the third book of the trilogy. I highly recommend this book to action lovers who are 13 and over, due to inappropriate content and violence.