Insurgent (Divergent # 2) by Veronica Roth

Once again a great demonstration of different people standing by a specific set of values. The subject fascinated me greatly in Divergent, in which the mostly described faction was Dauntless and probably Abnegation. It was even more interesting to meet with Candor and Amity and Erudite and the Factionless.

The book begins right where Divergent ended. Tris, Four and a couple of others running for their lives after having ended the simulation and finally put an end to the horrifying manslaughter masterminded by Erudite. They seek refuge in Amity headquarters. Amity, being the Peaceful offer them safe home. Meanwhile, Tris is having difficulty living with herself and Four with his father. At this point, Beatrice Prior of Insurgent sounds more and more like Katniss Everdeen of The Hunger Games. That is accounted for by the similarities in situations, not the similarities in the two stories, as some people point out. Tris had to kill one of her best friend from Dauntless in order to save herself so she could put an end to simulation, she being the only one 'awake' (not under simulation). Personally I think that idea of man-controlling is great. I don't know if its new or not but it fits perfectly in the story.

The book is slow and a little dragging in the beginning, for almost 100 pages but later it picks up pace.

Nobody but Erudite and only one living Abnegation leader Marcus, Four's father, knows the reason that drove Erudite to kill a whole faction. The Dauntless, after waking from simulation, the Attack Simulation as they call it, and finding themselves to having been used for murder, are divided into two groups now. Some have joined hands with Erudite, thus called Dauntless Traitors and others have sought refuge in Amity and Candor headquarters.

Its just fascinating how Amity places the need to keep peace above everything. They even mix a calming serum in their bread. They avoid fighting at all costs, even if it betrays reason.

The Amity headquarters are raided by Erudite and dauntless Traitors to find Tris and Four and once again they have to run for their lives. This time they end up with Candor.Here we find ourselves with the most straight-forward people, who cannot stay quiet about a single thing. Like Amity's calming drought,they have Truth Serum to get the truth out of anybody. Turns out that being the most open-mouthed does not make them useful at all and they are supposedly the expendable faction, because they do not produce anything that is required for sustenance. So now Erudite threatens Candor, which does the trick. The Candor Leader, being utterly unable to 'keep the truth caged' immediately declares that they are no longer supporting the refugees.

So now Tris and Four finds themselves with the Factionless and their crude life style.

The Dauntless return to their own headquarters to plan a strategy against Erudite, but Erudite are already a step ahead, as they had already injected most of them with a long-lasting simulation serum, which they now use to stage forced suicides of young Dauntless and unless they hand themselves the Divergent for experimenting, it would continue. Divergents are now commonly known, thanks to Truth Serum of Candor. So Beatrice hands herself to Erudite and was just about to be executed when she is rescued in a most astonishing way.

Tris realizes that she still wants to live, which she seemed to have forgotten due to her depression over being a murderer and having witnessed her parents deaths. She was being pretty reckless before that.

Now they join hands with the Factionless to destroy all the data that is Erudite's power and together they attack the Erudite. At this time, however, Tris works separately to recover a file that was left with Erudite leader. This file is supposed to be the reason for all the disaster and for Tris's parents' death.

Why the Divergent are so threatening to Erudite remains a mystery till the very end.

It continues to reveal how people holding for different values will make different choices. Erudite, who believe in cold logic see no reason for them to be forced to leave their well-established system of living. Abnegation, on the other hand, do not place their own system above anybody's life.
I have recounted a lot from the book, but by no means this tells the complete story. There is yet a lot to be discovered and it ends in such a way that makes you want to grab the next book right away. But we cannot get everything we want. We have to wait for months for the sequel to be released. I hope its publication is not delayed even further than that.