Book Review: Allegiant

Allegiant (Divergent #3)

By: Veronica Roth

Published By: Katherine Tegen Books

Publication Date: October 22, 2013

Page Count: 526

Buy it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or IndieBound

Source: Purchased by Reviewer

Audience: Young Adult - Dystopian

Review of Book #1: Divergent

Review of Book #2: Insurgent

I have to congratulate you if you have managed to stay spoiler free on this one. It seems that a lot of people are talking about the ending. I will be keeping this review as spoiler free as possible.

 

Allegiant picks up very quickly after the events of Insurgent. It might even be worth a skim read to brush up on what happened so you can hit the ground running. Anyway, Tris is in jail and Tobias is not, the factions are dissolved and the factionless are in charge. This is a recipe for a civil war, and then there is the question of what lies beyond the city limits. Why no one ever thought about that is also revealed quite skilfully after a while, which answered one of my main questions.

Tobias... Four... I have never liked calling him Tobias. He has always been Four to me, but then I think that is because Four is this confident instructor guy who was a little untouchable. Tobias has issues. He has been deeply scarred by the conflict between his parents as he grew up, and he agonises over every decision. He also doesn’t make the best decisions in Allegiant. His judgement of character is shaken and he finds himself in a position where he needs to start making amends. I do love how he comes back from that.

 

Tris is much recovered from the desire to give up and die, preferably by sacrificing herself if possible, which plagued her Insurgent. She has accepted certain things about herself, and it makes her a better person. She is slightly more cautious than before and she learns the value of playing her cards close to her chest this time around. She has some hard choices to make, and she makes them well. I was ultimately impressed by her, although I couldn’t help but miss the impetuous Tris from Divergent.

 

I applaud Veronica Roth for staying very true to her characters through this final instalment. In the end, they make the choices that they would have, if they were real people. She doesn’t pull any punches and that will have upset some fans. I think her writing was beautiful, and she did manage to extract a number of tears from me – something not easily done. I’m not a crier, but her words moved me during a time of grief on several occasions.

 

While I do think Allegiant was written beautifully, I still can’t bring myself to give it five birdies. On finishing it, I was reminded of how I felt finishing Mockingjay by Susan Collins. I recognize that Allegiant was brilliantly written, but the pace was pretty slow to start with, as the characters coped with their damage, and when it did pick up, some of the characters I really loved suffered just a little too much for me to be able to say that I loved this. I will look back on Allegiant as I do Mockingjay – a fitting and right end to a series which I love, but not something I will seek to reread much.

Summary:

One choice will define you.

What if your whole world was a lie?
What if a single revelation—like a single choice—changed everything?
What if love and loyalty made you do things you never expected?

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 Times best-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.