A review by kea9f
Insurgent by Veronica Roth

3.0

Not as good as the first one. It seems like Tris is supposed to be suffering from PTSD, which is reasonable, but it's incredibly frustrating that she just goes and does dangerous things even tho can't hold a gun. I don't have any kind of psychology degrees but it's my understanding that's not how PTSD works, that it usually results in more rational behavior (like hyperawareness, paranoia, and violence). If I'm right, and the author just didn't do the research, that's pretty horrible, considering what an important national issue PTSD is. If I'm wrong and this is some kind of legit trauma disorderTris is suffering from, then I don't like it as a literary device. It seems the goal is not for Tris to overcome it, but merely to be praised as martyr, which is frustrating and kind of dumb. Tris really is a martyr a lot of the time in other ways too and it's annoying. For example it was incredibly selfish of her to give herself up for research. she knew they could use her to enslave the others and apparently still thought it was the right thing to do. Which is SO STUPID. I just think if ur going to write about human failings in a war, it should either be a real war with true stories we can learn something from, or it should be entertaining to read. This book was mostly just frustrating. It slid back into the normal teen genre where u just want the characters to get over themselves and take action because people are dying. I havnt started the third one yet and I'm not sure I will after this. I didn't hate it, the story wasn't terrible, it was just very frustrating to read.