Intricate Insurgent

* Spoilers are highlighted like so :)

4 out of 5 gnomes

This series continues to intrigue me because of the very strong characters and the intricacies of each faction.  This book is all about chaos and what people will do when war breaks out.

The factions are still a great way to see the different values that people find important.  The picking of a factions  really makes me wonder about the whole nature versus nurture aspect of people's brains or whether in this future you're just mostly hardwired to think a certain way unless you're divergent.  I really liked learning more about each of the factions in this book especially Candor and Amity.

Tris almost veered into the kind of behavior that Katniss exhibited in Mockingjay but thankfully pulls out of that emotional tailspin.  It was understandable why she felt that way but I'm glad that she snapped out of it after a while.  She continues to grow and discover more about what being Divergent means.

Four, it turns out has been keeping secrets from everyone including Tris.  I was very surprised by what he was hiding but it did make sense with the way he acted too.  Four is the kind of guy that doesn't seem to covet power but people always seem to think that he fits the role.  He kind of has this almost quintessential tragic story arc going on, I'm starting to think that he might not make it to the very end of however this story ends.  There is just so much to discover of this character especially after they move out of their normal surroundings.

Sacrifice and grief permeate this book and there are so many betrayals and twisted alliances.  I was pleasantly surprised by at least one person and horribly disappointed in another.  You'll think that you know these characters but there are many grey areas.  You may begin to wonder if the same mistakes are just going to keep repeating themselves.

I'm not sure what to think about the ending revelation, I think I expected something more/a different explanation.  They talk so much about gates at the end that you kind of figure out what they're going to find out.  I expected more out of it though like maybe that the whole thing is a simulation ala the Matrix movies or something like zombies.  Oh and when it gets mentioned that Tris is second generation I thought perhaps they might all be clones.  Not to take away from the ending I just wish there had been more after it was revealed and I'm really hoping that the third book will pick up right where the second left off.  The ending does seem to promise one heck of an interesting beginning for the next book.  It leaves a plethora of potential problems and there may be many more difficult choices down the road. 

I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens next and where exactly this series is going.  I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book and feel the same way about the next one.  These books may be large page-wise but those pages fly by with all the action going on.