In Divergent, Veronica Roth gave us a great heroine in Tris and set us up well for an adventurous saga. Insurgent picks up the story and fans of Veronica Roth will not be disappointed.

Packed full of action, Insurgent brings a revolt against the Erudite and shows the cracks in the foundations of the Factions and the Factionless. Tris is guilt-ridden over her actions at the end of Divergent and she’s lost confidence in her own judgement. Tris and Tobias (Four) don’t know who they can trust. Unlikely alliances are forged, and former allies become enemies.

A sequel always makes me nervous, especially when I adored the first book. Roth maintains the best of Divergent in this continuation of the saga. Tris is still a fantastic heroine- of course she’s more vulnerable and confused in Insurgent but this doesn’t read as a weakness. Instead, it comes across as authentic because of everything going on. The relationship between Tris and Tobias remains complex, but again in a good way. Roth introduces good tension between them as she has Tris wary of  Tobias’ reaction to a new character introduced in this book (I don’t want to spoil anything, so that’s about as much as I’ll say about that) and struggles with whether or not using Marcus is betraying Tobias.

I mentioned earlier that Insurgent is action packed, and it is.  It’s done in a way that advances the story and reveals more about the various factions and the factionless.  I think Roth is on a good trajectory here.  She took the end of this book in a direction I wasn’t expecting, and set up a very interesting premise for the third book.  It will be long wait for the next installment, which I believe will be out next year.

If you haven’t read Divergent yet, definitely start with it. But have your copy of Insurgent handy, too, because you’re going to want to keep reading.