Letter Essay 7: Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Dear Michael

For the past three weeks in book clubs, I have have been reading the book Insurgent. It is 525 pages long and is the second book in the divergent series. Also it is my second ever dystopian novel. This book was given 4 stars,and over 826,000 voted. This book was nominated for many wonderful awards including  “Favorite Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction and Author of 2012 in 2012’s Goodreads Choice Awards. It was also nominated at Children’s Choice Book Awards for Teen book of the year and Author of the year. One of the main reasons why I read this book was because I read the book divergent the week before and I really enjoyed it. Also because we are in the middle of a dystopian literature unit and I really enjoyed Divergent. Another reason why I am reading this book is because many of my friends have told me how great it was. The description of the book is unbelievable. The last reason why I read the book is because I saw the movie a few weeks before. In the start of the movie it really explained to me that the book was going to be even greater. At first I was reading the book and thinking that I was not going to finish but after a few long weeks I finally completed it. I was so happy that the other day I started to read the third book. Finishing this book made me really proud of myself.

For a recap of the first book Divergent is the first out of three books about a dystopian world where everyone is divided into five factions, based on their personalities, Abnegation (selfless), Candor (honest), Amity (peaceful), Erudite (intelligent) and Dauntless (brave). Although Beatrice was born into Abnegation, all citizens, once they reach 16, take a test to determine the best place for them and then they must decide—and so she is faced with a choice. Most stick with the life they have always known, choose a different faction from their parents and are then forced to leave behind their past life—friends, family, moral codes—to join another. When it’s time to decide Beatrice decides to leave Abnegation for Dauntless and there she calls herself Tris, everyone is shocked. In a faction where blind courage, brute strength and total fearlessness are valued, above all else how can a abnegation girl survive in such a tough environment? Her test results were inconclusive so basically she had the choice between all 5 of the factions. Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made, (training days). Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and psychological simulations, some with horrible consequences.

It all starts off with Tris finding out about the truth of divergent on how they are supposed to protect everybody. So Tris escapes from Dauntless headquarters and is now on the run from Jeaniene. But all of a sudden she is seen and then put under the tests to crack the codes and bring life back to see how bad the divergents are. So she is put through all the tests and her own brother Caleb work with Jeniene to save what they think is the right thing. But somehow Four is able to break her out and they kill one of the heads people Eric. This starts the war between all the divergents and society. Now she must break into the Erudite headquarters and hack into Jeanine’s computer to delete all of work.

Throughout the book I noticed that Caleb’s action change from start to finish. At first he wants to help Jeaniene crack the code to the box. Watching his sister struggle with all the cords going into her back is too much for him though. He finally seeks greatness and with Four’s help he is able to escape safely with the key to society. Finally, Caleb changes because he starts to become violent when he finds Tris hacking into Erudite headquarters. He then tries to hit her but is knocked out by fours dad Marcus. I rate this book a 9 out of 10

From, Tyler