Book Review: Allegiant by Veronica Roth

Book Review: Allegiant by Veronica RothAllegiant by Veronica Roth
Series: Divergent #3
Published by Katherine Tegen Books on October 22, 2013
Genres: Dystopian, Romance, Science Fiction, Young Adult
Pages: 526
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Synopsis:

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.

Told from a riveting dual perspective, Allegiant, by #1 New York Timesbest-selling author Veronica Roth, brings the Divergent series to a powerful conclusion while revealing the secrets of the dystopian world that has captivated millions of readers in Divergent and Insurgent.

 

I’m starting this review with a warning: I did NOT like Allegiant. So if you’re one of the die hard fans, you will probably disagree with most of what I say here.

*MAJOR SPOILERS FOR ALLEGIANT. DO NOT CONTINUE IF YOU DON’T WANT THE SERIES TO BE COMPLETELY SPOILED*

I’m going to start with the things I liked. I loved Tris and Tobias’ relationship and the development it got. They have been through so much, not only from outside attacks, but they have betrayed each other, lied, disappointed each other…and they are still together. They talk through their issues, and decide to stay together. I loved them. It was the main thing that kept me reading Allegiant. It felt like a very real relationship (although with very serious and unusual circumstances).

I liked the development with Caleb’s character and his relationship with Tris. He’s a horrid little snot, but I liked that we saw a more human side of him in Allegiant. I liked that there was some reconciliation between him and Tris.

Now onto the things I didn’t like.

Pretty much everything else, sadly. Before you get angry and start telling me how this book is the picture of perfection, I will say that I can completely understand how lots of people like this book. Roth gives reasonable explanations for things that seem clever and engaging and she doesn’t give her readers a happily ever after tied up in a little bow, that to some, would seem less meaningful than the ending we got.

While I found the genetically damaged vs. genetically pure argument interesting, it felt very disconnected from the first two books. It seemed like Veronica Roth woke up one day and said, “I need an explanation for everything,” and just kind of slapped Allegiant together. The fact that the factions, divergence, and everything about the first two books is actually fake and part of an science experiment really ticked me off. It would be like Hagrid showing up at Harry’s house after he graduated from Hogwarts and being like “Oh, I gave you some ‘shrooms when you were eleven and you actually hallucinated the entire wizard thing”.

I don’t really have a problem with Veronica Roth killing off Tris (though I almost always prefer a happy ending and honestly would have in this case), but I do have a problem with HOW she did it. Allowing a new character, who no one really cares about that we have only received second knowledge of his terrible deeds, allowing him to kill Tris felt mildly offensive to me. Now, if she had, say, let Marcus do the deed, then we would have gone somewhere. Somewhere much more interesting than what we got. David wasn’t villainous at all, and he did not deserve to have to importance of Tris’ death fall on him.

I really wanted to love Allegiant. Divergent still is and probably will be for a long time my favorite YA Dystopian. Just reading Allegiant made me want to go re-read Divergent. And I can’t wait to read the Four novellas.

How did you like Allegiant? Let me know in the comments what your thoughts were on this book, whether you agree or disagree with my review!

2 Stars

4 comments

  1. Shannon @ The Tale Temptress says:

    I’ve been waiting for you to post this review as soon as I saw it in your Stacking the Shelves post. LOL! Now that you have, I have to say I agree with you completely. I hate to admit it but I really hated this book. But it actually started for me at the end of the second book.

    I thought that ending and the big reveal was very predictable. But then in Allegiant, we take a step further and find out it’s all an expirament. I felt so cheated. I’m not sure why.

    Tris’ death bothered me a lot, but, like you, I would have been able to swallow it a lot better if it had more meaning behind it. This just seemed like a plot device designed to make everybody sad an the book all poignant without being thought out very much at all. I was so disappointed in this book, although I love the series as a whole.

    I’m wondering if the movemakers are going to stick with the ending or if they’re going to take some creative license to make things more palatable to the viewer. Sort of a good opportunity to fix things for the fans maybe.
    Shannon @ The Tale Temptress recently posted…Review: Awakening by Shannon DuffyMy Profile

  2. Meghan says:

    I’m with you on this! Allegiant ruined the trilogy for me. The first two books were well done and developed. I agree that it felt slapped together. I also felt like I was being hit over the head with the idea that their “government” was controlling people. It got this overly political feel that was there in the first two, but subtle and understandable. In this last one it just was..contrived and forced upon the reader.

    I too was okay with Tris’s death. I understood from the beginning of the book that it was going to happen–why else would we suddenly have Four’s POV (another issue I have with the book)? Although I didn’t want her to die, I understood that the story was going in that direction. It was inevitable.

    I also did not like the dual perspectives. First, we hadn’t had this in the first two books. So introducing it suddenly was jarring. Second, they voices were the same. There wasn’t any difference between the two, and I would be a full page into a chapter and not know whose voice I was reading, confused by what was going on. This happened multiple times because there wasn’t a difference in the two.

    Like I said, I also did not enjoy Allegiant.

    • Jessica says:

      YES Everything was contrived! So fake feeling compared to the first one! And yeah, the two POV’s were weird…it was pretty much impossible to tell which was which. I had to go back too and clarify who was narrating some chapters.
      Jessica recently posted…Book Review: AngelfallMy Profile

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