Insurgent

This series gets way better in the second book. A ton of action, much like Mockingbird in The Hunger Game series it because packed with battles and lots of militia being formed. The "shocking" ending didn't leave me dying to keep reading the way Catching Fire did.

Mostly enjoyed it but felt torn between 3 and 4 stars, so probably 3.5 is a more accurate rating. I felt Tris spent so long in her despair in this book and didn’t like how it pushed her towards what can be interpreted as a kind of longing for death. The mysterious secret Marcus protects also felt intentionally withheld by the author for what feels like not quite a good enough “reason” but I still generally enjoyed the journey through...

The second book in the Divergent series was another good read. The story continued along the same lines as the previous one with lots of twists and turns thrown in for good measure, which kept my attention.

*Slight Spoiler...
OK, I'm not usually the one noting violence in a TV show or film, and so I'm rarely the one calling attention to it in books either. But for some reason, I still find this series more strikingly violent than other dystopian series like THE HUNGER GAMES. It just strikes me as more violent in general, and something about that bothered me. I can't quite place my finger on why exactly.

Yes, I know that the factions are fighting one another, but the internal fighting and chaos within the factions is just as brutal as out, and somehow that continued to strike a chord within me.

Not the best sequel not the worse either

Sort of pointlessly violent. The plot felt very random too. The second book had none of the charm of the first book where we got to know particular characters and understand their relationships with other characters. Meh. I'm still probably going to read the third one because of my FOMO.