Honestly, I finished this book in 2 days. Unfortunately, I read it so fast the whole thing is a bit of a blur. I remember I liked it though. MASSIVE BOOK 1 SPOILERS TO FOLLOW:
You've been warned.
OK, Here we go. Book 2 kicks off right after the genocide of Tris' former faction including the murder of both her parents. She's also pretty upset that she shot one of her best friends in the face while he was brainwashed. (told you there'd be spoilers)
For most of the book, Tris is suffering from some pretty severe PTSD. She becomes borderline suicidal as she attempts to stop the Erudite from either killing everyone or controlling them with mind altering injections. We also learn that the divergent population is being specifically targeted because of their resistance to these injections. I really liked the way the author showed the psychological toll the events are taking on Tris. The book spends a lot of time dealing with survivor's guilt and assorted trauma and it is really well done. It takes a pretty harrowing sequence of events to get her to stop trying to get herself killed.
That doesn't stop a whole crap ton of other people from dying though. I feel like author Veronica Roth is trying to set a record for the number of dead significant characters in a book series. We're into the dozens already and it's only been two books. Red Shirts have a better survival rate. With the breathtaking pace and the high mortality rate, it is sometimes hard to stop and consider the ideas being presented, many of which are worth pondering. The entertainment level is so high though that rereading is highly likely, so I'll think about the big ideas then.
Oh, and the book ends on a massive cliff hanger. I kind of saw something like that coming, but it was pretty great anyway.
9/10
No comments:
Post a Comment