Insurgent takes no time reorienting the reader. Roth just dove right into the story — BANG! — and moved right along with the plot.
This worked fine for me, as I had just finished the first one, and it was nice to not have a bunch of stupid recaps, but I am wondering about other readers. What if you read Divergent when it first came out? Did this type of intro work for you, or did you find yourself jumping on your phone to find out who the heck Edward was?
The second book of The Knife of Never Letting Go took this same approach. It worked for Ness, but I do think it messes with the pacing. If the author is not drawing you into the story, is not preparing you for what will come next, it kind of just feels like all the downs on the roller-coaster and no ups. No anticipation. No place to breathe. No suspense.
That’s not to say I didn’t like the book. That’s just me taking a moment to think on the structure (in other words, what was bothering me about the first 50 pages). At some point, Roth had to pull back and slow the pacing a bit. I’m not sure she did it soon enough for me, but I’m also not the target demographic here.
What did you guys think? Have you read any other books like this?