Audiobook Review: Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Author: Veronica Roth
Narrator: Emma Galvin
Series: Divergent, #2
Released: May 1st 2012

Publisher: Harper Audio
Lenght: 11 hrs and 22 mins
Buy: Audible

One choice can transform you - or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves - and herself - while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable - and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

New York Times best-selling author Veronica Roth's much-anticipated second book of the dystopian Divergent series is another intoxicating thrill ride of a story, rich with hallmark twists, heartbreaks, romance, and powerful insights about human nature.

Middle book syndrome, thy name is Insurgent, and you’ve never been this painful before. I realize this is not a popular opinion. For every negative review out there, Insurgent has fifteen positive ones, which I guess makes me the odd one out, not for the first time.

But seriously, wow. If you’re ever struck by a sudden desire to read a book about nothing at all and don’t know what to choose, look no further – Veronica Roth will satisfy your curiosity. I was one of those people who neither loved nor hated Divergent: I thought it was fun but full of holes worldbuilding-wise, I thought the characters were interesting, but needed more work, and I thought the action scenes were reasonably well-written, but certainly not mind-blowing.
None of those things apply to Insurgent. I only mention them to clarify that I didn’t expect much to begin with. But after the first few chapters of Insurgent, I realized that even those weak expectations wouldn’t be met. It is one of the emptiest books I’ve ever read: you go searching for plot and come up empty; you try finding some character development – empty. Good action scenes… well, some, but without an actual plot to keep me engaged, they felt empty nonetheless.

I usually enjoy writing plot summaries, but this time, I spent 10 minutes staring at the blinking cursor, having absolutely no idea how to put this lack of anything meaningful into words. I just keep going back to Tris instead. And since I already mentioned character development, I’d like to know what on earth happened to her? I wrote this plenty of times in my reviews: if I don’t like the main character, I simply can’t like the book! (Unless, of course, the whole point of the book is that I dislike its protagonist, which most definitely isn’t the case here.) I might have enjoyed Insurgent at least a little bit if not for Tris’s constant whining. This entire book is one big pity-party, a series of unnecessary, meaningless sacrifices. People kept turning to her to analyze the situation, but she was the least logical among them. At least with the real Dauntless you know where you stand… they shoots first, ask questions later… if at all. Tris whines first, makes idiotic decisions, lies to the only person who actually cares about her, whines some more, shoots when she has no other way out, then whines because she was forced to shoot. Rinse and repeat. Her guilt over killing Will was fine up to a point, but when she became self-destructive over it, I started thinking that she should have done everyone a favor and let Will shoot her instead! That was the only other option: kill him or die, but instead of accepting this, she was determined to destroy herself (and Tobias) because of it.

The narrator, Emma Galvin, saved the book for me. She truly did an outstanding job. Sometimes a narrator just grates on me for no apparent reason, but the exact opposite happened with Emma: she is so good that I’d be perfectly happy listening to her read grocery lists all day long. She is what kept me going around the middle, when I would have given up otherwise.

There is no hope for me and this series. I wanted to be excited about the third book, but I doubt I’ll even read it. Everyone has their list of dealbreakers, those things they just can’t get over in books, and whining and self-pity are at the very top of mine. (You can read this lovely post about dealbreakers at The Readventurer.)

When book three comes out, I promise I will be excited with and for my friends. I swear I will. I just doubt I’ll read it myself.