Reviews: The Serpent's Shadow and Insurgent

After trudging through a book on my Fall Into Reading list (I just could NOT get into it), I moved on to two YA books I've had on my to-read list:  The Serpent's Shadow by Rick Riordan and Insurgent by Veronica Roth.

**Spoiler Alert**

Please note, these are both part of series, so if you haven't read the previous books, stop reading!  Now you've been warned, so read on at your own risk.

 

The Serpent's Shadow

The last installment in the Kane Chronicles, this one picks up a few months after the last left off:  Apophis is free from the underworld, Will has a genetic disease and is dying, Uncle Amos is Nome 1 leader in Egypt, Carter is in love with Zia (who doesn't really know him since she was a shabti) and Sadie wants to be with both Will and Anubis.

Apophis and his (its?) forces are attacking and destroying Nomes throughout the world in an attempt to also destroy a manuscript written by a long-dead, evil magician, Setne.  The Cane's must enlist Setne's help to destroy Apophis, but only if they can trust him.

Their rag-tag team of helpers include Zia, Will, Bast, Khufu and Bes, and as usual a helping hand from the gods, Isis, Horus, Ra and Anubis.

I love these books.  They aren't anything difficult to understand, and while they do talk down a bit (the side-bars where the siblings taunt each other are kind of annoying), I still enjoy them so much.  I don't know much about Egyptian mythology besides what was taught to me in 5th or 6th grade, so I feel like I'm learning while I'm reading.  Of course, Riordan could be making up all this for all I know, but hey, I'll go along with it and assume it's all accurate.

4 Stars

 

Insurgent

The second book in the Divergent series starts right after the first one started.  Tris, Tobias (Four), Tobias's father Marcus, Tris's brother Caleb and the awful Peter are on their way to Amity for help and refuge after the Dauntless/Erudite attack on Abnegation. The refugees are not safe, so they travel to Candor where the rest of the faithful Dauntless have gone.  Tris is having trouble coping with the death of her parents and with having killed Will and her inability to deal with it is effecting her relationship with Tobias.  Her behavior becomes more reckless as they all try to come up with a solution on what to do with Erudite and the traitor Dauntless and how to keep the Divergent safe and how to find new allies in the Factionless.

I heard from several people that Insurgent wasn't as good as Divergent.  I purposely waited a while before reading Insurgent so that I wouldn't have to wait as long for book 3.  Perhaps because of this, I liked it more because I wasn't comparing it to Divergent.  I thought it was really good and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  My only complaint is that since this picks up right where Divergent left off, I had a hard time remembering all the characters.  Also, Roth didn't describe the characters, so I couldn't picture them in my head since they were described in book 1.  At the end of 2, she described Will, but it took until the end of the book to find out what he looked like.  And Christina?  I have no recollection of what she looked like except that she has a different complexion as Tris.  So that is my only complaint.  Otherwise, it was fast paced and fun.  Yes, Tris's and Tobias's trust issues and insecurities were a bit tiresome, but they're teenagers in love.  That seemed to be how I remember my relationships at that age.  Can't wait for book 3 to come out!

4.5 stars