I didn’t like this book as much as the first one in the series, but it was still entertaining. The pacing was slightly slower. In the first book, the pacing was so fast that I didn’t have much time to think about or care about the logical flaws in the narrative. They were much more noticeable to me in this book. (The faction system doesn’t quite make sense; Tris is a very good fighter for having only a few weeks of training; some of the decisions that the characters make are convenient for the plot but probably not something that an intelligent human would do.)

The characters in this book got on my nerves more than they did in the first book. Tris is depressed about what happened to her parents and Will. I understand why she is depressed, but her parents and Will are so underdeveloped that I didn’t really care about them. Since I don’t care about them, Tris’s depression comes across as whining and gets annoying fast. I also don’t know what happened to Four’s character in this book. He suddenly became rude, angsty, judgmental, and selfish. I’m not sure why. He seemed okay in the first book.

I did like the plot enough that I’m going to read the final book in the series. The “twist” at the end of this book is predictable, but it’s intriguing enough that I want to know what happens next. I also appreciate the fact that some of the characters had complex motives, and I was never totally sure who could be trusted. I want to know how all of that turns out.