On Simulations: A Review of Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Guys, sometimes life stands up and smacks you in the face with it's craziness. June has been one of those months when I really want to read...but I can't. There simply hasn't been time. I just got a new job, had my bridal shower, and I'm in the process of moving...So I would no sooner pick up this book than be interrupted. To say I had some difficulty getting immersed is an understatement. Take my review with a grain of salt.

This is book two in a planned YA dystopian trilogy (I feel like YA dystopian trilogies should get their own category on this blog, there are so many).  It focuses on Tris, a teenage girl with a unique brain that makes her courageous, selfless, and intelligent--a combination that makes her resistant to simulations, i.e. mind control. This book deals in large part with the aftermath of the first book, with Tris and Four trying to decide who to trust and what to fight for.

Positive Comments:

I felt that Roth did a great job with Tris in terms of character development. Countless times in the book, Tris makes decisions that you could only describe as reckless. She's trying to figure out what it means to be self sacrificing, what it means to be a survivor. She struggles with her conscience after having to take a life. After all of that, I can see her growing into something awesome. I'm emotionally invested in her journey, and it's that more than the dystopian world building that makes this book worth it for me.

Four/Tobias is a big part of her emotional journey, and I find their romance...passable. I like the fact that it is still a love story and NOT a love triangle story, and I don't have to bring Tippy into this. I enjoyed the fact that Roth built up a conflict between them based purely on issues of identity and choice, and not on big misunderstandings or, God forbid, another guy.

Critical Comments:

It's long. It's hard for me to accurately describe to what degree it drags because, as I said above, life made reading this book an ongoing struggle for me. But I feel that even under the best of circumstances I would have found certain portions unnecessary or too drawn out. Again, don't let this particular complaint stop you.

Here's the thing with dystopians...with some of them, it's easy to imagine a possible future or other world where life really could be this way. Dystopians are "what if" boxes with a lot of stuff inside. But the more I think about Tris and Four's world, the less sense it makes, and the less I'm able to immerse myself in that "what if" box. It doesn't make sense to me that people would divide themselves into factions based on prominent virtues and live by them to the letter--that's like Hogwarts Houses on steroids. It would never work, not even for a short period of time. I have to really shut my brain off in order to accept the world building of this particular book, and frankly I'd rather keep my brain on.

Recommendation:

Do I like this series? Yes. I do think you should read it, if you like dystopian YAs and if you go in knowing that the world building is flawed. And I think it's fair to say that this book was a solid addition to the series, though I wasn't thrilled with the pacing. Overall, it's a good book. 3.5 stars.

Get your copy here! Insurgent (Divergent)

On Dauntless: A Review of Divergent by Veronica Roth

This was one of those books that just kept popping up everywhere. Everyone that I asked insisted that I would love it, and they were not wrong.

Beatrice Prior has grown up in a faction called Abnegation, a subculture that believes in selflessness above all things. On her sixteenth birthday, she must choose a permanent faction--remain in Abnegation, or transfer to one of the four other factions. An aptitude test, meant to tell her which faction would suite her best, instead reveals something else entirely. Beatrice is divergent--she doesn't fit neatly into a category. Not fully understanding what this means, but knowing that it could lead to becoming an outcast, Beatrice makes the decision to enter Dauntless, the courage faction. Joining the Dauntless tests her physical, emotional, and psychological fortitude.

Positive Comments

I'm a sucker for a good training montage.  The journey to becoming a Dauntless was fascinating to me. Beatrice changes her name to Tris, sheds drab clothing in favor of sexier items, gets tattooed, learns to fight and use weapons, and starts to look inside herself for a deeper kind of bravery. She meets friends. She starts to fall for an older guy, named Four. And holy hell, there's not love triangle! What I'm saying, in a nutshell, is that I loved Tris' character arc, her personality, everything.

The relationship building with Four is about as good as you can expect in a book where the romance is not the main point. He's a likeable, layered character in his own right. More importantly, I liked that he respected and believed in Tris. He gets protective, but at the same time he trusts her to hold her own. I loved that.

Critical Comments

Some of the logic behind the world building is...well, it's not logical. So...having these factions somehow promotes peace? How? And the factions themselves are almost silly in their polarized ways of life. I chuckled a bit at some of the Dauntless behavior. They don't go to trains stations to board trains, they just jump on and off. And they leap off of buildings and climb stuff and pierce their bodies for no good reason...Basically, all of the arbitrary senseless displays of courage that you could possibly think of. I love the result of the world building, but you have to turn your brain off to accept that this world could ever exist.

Recommendation

If you like dystopians, this is a must read. If you like YA fiction in general, it's a must read. With a tough heroine, a solid story, and a sweet romance, I can't recommend this enough. 4.5 stars.