Author: Veronica Roth
Date of Publication: October 22, 2013
Pages: 526
Source: Personal Copy

The faction-based society that Tris Prior once believed in is shattered - fractured by violence and power struggles and scarred by loss and betrayal. So when offered a chance to explore the world past the limits she's known, Tris is ready. Perhaps beyond the fence, she and Tobias will find a simple new life together, free from complicated lies, tangled loyalties, and painful memories.

But Tris's new reality is even more alarming than the one she left behind. Old discoveries are quickly rendered meaningliess. Explosive new truths change the hearts of those she loves. And once again, Tris must battle to comprehend to complexities of human nature - and of herself - while facing impossible choices about courage, allegiance, sacrifice, and love.

GOODREADS

Review:
I'm heartbroken. I loved this book, but I also felt like there was something integrally wrong with it.

Many of the reviews I've read and comments from friends said that the book was boring, hard to read and not entertaining. Personally, Allegiant was an easy and interesting read for me. I was absorbed and interested the whole way through. As a book, it was a good one, I think its problem was living up to the standard set by the previous two books.

I really enjoyed finally getting some answers to my questions albeit not liking these answers. (Really Veronica Roth?) The familial relationships like Tris and Caleb, Tobias and his parents, Zeke and Uriah, were the real story. The book explored central themes introduced in the previous instalments like family, belonging and sacrifice.

"I don't belong to Abnegation, or Dauntless, or even the Divergent... I belong to the people I love, and they belong to me- they, and the love and loyalty I give them, form my identity far more than any word or group ever could." (Tris, 455) There were many such lines. Inspirational and heart warming but also borderline preachy. It sometimes felt like the rising action and climax had occurred in books 1 & 2. Allegiant was falling action from start to finish.

Allegiant incorporates Tobias' point of view, which I had previously read in Four, the companion novel, and thoroughly enjoyed. I can't say the same about this narration. Tobias felt different, his actions weren't the kind I'd come to expect from him. While this book explores his faults and insecurities, I felt like it ignored his strengths often.

I've always loved the partnership between Tris and Tobias. I thought of them as two people who, when they come together, things exploded, then rekindled and everything was just better. Their relationship was so strained in this book. I never got a chance to love them together. Instead, both were busy colliding for all the wrong reasons. Also, Tris took over the story. She was the righteous one, the one Four should follow. Nothing like the partnership I loved.

As for the ending, I was numb to what happened. I predicted it and when it finally happened I only felt mild surprise that my guess was right on. Looking back, I can't say I appreciated it much.

Divergent was my favourite of this series. And while I managed to enjoy Allegiant whilst reading it, the aftermath of finishing it has left me with a sting of disappointment. The relationship I loved did not get any of the limelight and the explanations given were insufficient.

-MARI

Author: Veronica Roth
Date of Publication: October 22 2013
Pages: 526
Source: Library
Series: Divergent #3

The faction-based society that Tris Prior once believed in is shattered—fractured by violence and power struggles and scarred by loss and betrayal. So when offered a chance to explore the world past the limits she’s known, Tris is ready. Perhaps beyond the fence, she and Tobias will find a simple new life together, free from complicated lies, tangled loyalties, and painful memories. 

But Tris’s new reality is even more alarming than the one she left behind. Old discoveries are quickly rendered meaningless. Explosive new truths change the hearts of those she loves. And once again, Tris must battle to comprehend the complexities of human nature—and of herself—while facing impossible choices about courage, allegiance, sacrifice, and love. 

Review:

Allegiant is infamous for the reaction it got. I refused to read any reviews but I heard all about the hate people had for the ending. After writing this review, I'm finally going to go see what other people thought. For now though, here are my thoughts.

It wasn't what I wanted it to be. My problems aren't with the ending. I actually admired the ending. I didn't like the overall story because it was slow and ideologically in some ways it went against what I believe in. Some of this ended up being resolved, but on the other hand an extremely hard decision was made that I can't ever agree with. This plan resulted in a favourable outcome but it still disappoints me that in a book all about choice and human nature, no one really tried that hard to effectuate change through discussion.

Okay, you probably understood nothing of that unless you read Allegiant, but that honestly did bug me.

Beyond that, I felt like the story was slow and not that interesting. I remember just being bored at some point. Everyone was so angsty and I didn't like it. The story just didnt interest me this time. I felt like Divergent was an incredibly interesting story but Insurgent and Allegiant kind of took it in a direction that I'm not that into.

I lacked an emotional connection to Allegiant until the end, and by then I was frustrated. I don't know why but I just never got into the characters. I also found Tobias' POV incredibly random. The whole series had been in Tris' POV and while Tobias' point of view did reveal some important information, I don't like the lack of continuity. Because I was in both Tris and Tobias' heads, I lacked an emotional connection because it made me so very conscious that I was reading the book. Checking who was narrating was also a little irritating. There is one part at the end that I thought this was very useful for. In some ways, this increased the emotional impact.

There were moments and passages that were very well written. Some parts were profound in a very resonating way, so there was definitely maturity to the story. I can't help but wish there was more of this. Allegiant didn't go into that much depth on the world and honestly, it needed to. I'm a big believer in human nature and I couldn't believe in the plausibility of this world. I suppose you could argue that Divergent wasn't that plausible either, but I think that's a matter of perception. Divergent was a fun fantasy, while Allegiant really emphasized how much of a dystopia it was.

The explanation was just underwhelming. There were points of action that were too brief, and the world building or characters weren't enough to attract my attention. I'm pretty disappointed in how the series ended, and Divergent is by far the best of the books, in my opinion.

Now, in regards to the ending, I had no problem with it. Maybe this speaks to how little connection I felt to the story, but I liked that Roth did something realistic. I don't know why people are angry. I feel like the ending was done well. I just wish that it wasn't the biggest event of the story. That might be the most definitive part to Allegiant and that's frankly disappointing.

Overall, I thought Allegiant was slow with minimal world building. Th characters didn't interest me and there was very little suspense built up. I had no problem with the ending. It was a pretty meh read, so I'm giving it 2 stars.

-P.E.