Insurgent by Veronica Roth is a science-fiction novel that follows the story of a girl named Tris who has just escaped from the evil plan of the Erudite to overthrow the faction system. Tris, along with her friends Tobias and Susan and her brother Caleb have to work together in order to prevent their civilization as they know it from falling into chaos. The book is set in the distant future in a post-apocalyptic society that has been divided into factions in order to maintain peace and has been cut off from the outside world. Within the futuristic society the factions Abnegation and Erudite have had a long-standing conflict between each other and Tris is caught between the two when Erudite makes the first move and attacks.
I am reading this book because after reading the first novel in the series Divergent, I was left on the edge of my seat leading up to the end of the book and wanted to pick up where I had left off by reading Insurgent. So far, some of the weaknesses that I have seen in the book is that the plot started off very slow in contrast to how the last book ended and that I feel that Tris is becoming more of a supporting character rather than the most important. Some of the strengths, however, are the continued action and constant conflict throughout the book with some nicely added plot twists which tie characters that had been left behind in the first book back into the plot of this one. I feel that the recommendation given to me was fairly accurate by saying that the book starts up pretty slow, but after a while gets better.
I feel that anyone who liked books such as those in the Hunger Games series would enjoy these books because they both have somewhat of a similar dystopian world and have strong female leading characters who share similar traits. This book is similar to the first book in the series but i feel like now that people understand the backstory of the faction system and no longer have to introduce the theme and characters, the author is free to throw in any number of plot twists and life-changing events than in the first book. Overall, I give this book a thumbs-up because even though it was initially a slow read, the book has slowly gotten better and almost to the point where I could say that it was as good as the first book in the series.

After reading Divergent by Veronica Roth I would have to say that I really enjoyed the story. Initially, I thought it was going to be something along the lines of a worse version of The Hunger Games series, but after reading a few chapters, I slowly got hooked. This book well exceeded my expectations and was a very enjoyable read. Although some of the plot was predictable such as the attack on Abnegation using the simulations, it still threw me for some twists and turns along the way. I would recommend this to anyone who is a fan of The Hunger Games  as it has a similar dystopian structure with a strong female main character. Also, the book is full of action and kept me on the edge of my seat wanting more.
In my opinion the film was a disappointment compared to the book. I feel like the whole plot was very rushed and the parts that they did end up focusing on came across as very forced. Some of the similarities between the film and the book were the fact that Jeannine was accurate to the books description as condescending and devious, all while keeping calm and collected Also, I enjoyed how the Dauntless as a faction were portrayed in the movie as it captured their free-spirited attitude and energy throughout the movie. Overall, it was a mediocre film at best because they never went into detail of the initiation process and how it truly pushed them to the limit and couldn't quite capture the character of Tris being strong when she needed to instead of the random bravery she showed in the movie.
I am glad that I was both able to read this book and watch the movie adaptation. I often try to read books before watching their movie counterparts because I feel that if I had watched this movie before reading the book, I would have never read it. I plan to take away the fact that I truly prefer the book over the movie and to never watch that movie again. In my opinion, if anyone wants to know the story of divergent, they shouldn't even bother with the movie and just read the books instead.

1. When I think back to my childhood, the book that really stands out the most in my mind is none other than Captain Underpants. What really stood out in this book above the rest was the fact that it wasn't like any other book in the past. While most books were just words written on the page, I enjoyed the way that this book allowed you to interact through its many flip-o-ramas and made you laugh with all of its immature jokes. This was one of the few books that I feel really just let kids have fun and encouraged them to have fun and goof off. It taught me that school wasn't all about work, but should be treated like an adventure and to let the fun moments last for as long as you can.

2. A character that I identify with would probably be Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games. I believe that people should be free to choose their own path and believe that I have the same protective attitude towards my friends and family. Constantly throughout the series, Katniss shows cleverness such as when she used the tracker jackers to get rid of the careers that were chasing her or using the apples to blow up their food supply. Furthermore, she has a leave nobody behind mood to getting through the games. Whenever one of her friends gets hurt or has to rest, she never goes on ahead or wants to leave them behind, but helps them through their struggles. Personally, I believe that I am a creative thinker that can find solutions to problems quite easily and am always someone who tries to help a friend if they need help or don't understand something.

3. A book that I would highly recommend to friends is The Martian by Andy Wier. This is a novel about an astronaut named Mark Watney who is in quite the interesting predicament having been recently stranded on Mars with the next ship arriving months later. The story is told from Mark's mission log which allows the reader to know exactly what he is thinking and truly get to know Mark while also being put in his footsteps along his journey to get off Mars. Some of the great qualities to this book are Watney's humorous, optimistic nature and all of the science and thought process behind his problem-solving. The novel is full of twists and turns where one moment you think he will survive and then suddenly be on the edge of death. This book is a must-read book and I would recommend it to anyone interested in sci-fi and survival stories.

4. The top book on my must read list for this year is probably Insurgent by Veronica Roth. This is the second book in the Divergent series in which a society has been created in order to prevent war. Within the story, there are five factions that were created to each get rid of one of the "traits of the corrupt" which include cowardliness, selfishness, violence, deception, and ignorance. The five factions are Dauntless, Abnegation, Amity, Candor, and Erudite respectively. The story is told from the perspective of a young woman named Tris who was originally from the Abnegation but had her life changed when she underwent her choosing ceremony. I really want to read the second book in this series because I enjoyed the first book due to its fast paced plot and that there was always something happening with little time in between events, creating a fuller story. Many times I believe that I could be in the same position as Tris and enjoyed finding out how she would solve the next problems that would come her way.

5. My favorite book that went to the screen was probably Q and A. This is one of the few books that I thought was very accurate to the events that happened in the book. I enjoyed the fact that they were able to capture the pressure that Ram was facing during the competition and the humorous aspects like the time he made money by giving fake tours of the Taj Mahal. This book opened my eyes to the many struggles in other countries such as poverty and abuse faced by children that were my age. Although it did scare me in a sense, I was glad to have read the book and see it adapted so well into a movie.

6. My favorite book that I have read so far in school has to be Fahrenheit 451. This was the first real dystopian world that I was introduced to besides the Hunger Games and I saw the many negative effects of censorship. This book really challenged my views of books and how important they really are in both keeping history and spreading ideas to people. I also enjoyed the fact that even though this book was written quite a while ago, that we could still relate to the author's predictions for the future. The idea that we are slowly becoming more self absorbed and obsessed with technology is a real growing concern that should be addressed.

7. My favorite coming of age book was Lord of the Flies because it not only showed the side of human cooperation for survival, but also humanity's savage and animalistic side. At the beginning of the book, the main character Ralph and all of the other kids don't care about what they need to do and nobody takes responsibility over keeping them all alive. However, once Ralph and the others are unable to signal a distant fire since their fire went out, Ralph slowly starts to take charge of the group and organizing parties to preform all the necessary tasks to survive such as gathering food and water and building shelters. While half of the group turns to primal instinct, Ralph matures fast and tries to use civilized methods to survive and overcome the madness that has engulfed the other kids' minds.