Allegiant by Veronica Roth Series: Divergent #3
Published by Katherine Tegen Books on October 22, 2013
Pages: 526
Format: Hardcover
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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.
PLEASE NOTE: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.
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You’ve been warned….
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Seriously.. Stop RIGHT HERE if you don’t want to be spoiled!
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Okay. So.. I finished Allegiant a few days after it came out, and I’ve been trying – and failing – to figure out how to put into words how I felt about it. I want to note that I DID NOT read Allegiant with writing a review in mind. I actually had planned NOT to review it. But… I have so many feels, I kind of can’t help but write one. I feel like I need it… Closure, you know? Well, if you’ve read it, you know. And if you haven’t read it… WHY ARE YOU READING THIS? SPOILERS AHEAD! FAIR WARNING, GUYS!
One other thing I want to say before I start the “official” review is.. I’m pretty sure I’m going to fangirl and spew random thoughts and such. I’m also sure I’m going to forget to discuss several important points in the book. This will likely be my LEAST professional, LEAST put-together review. Ever. So… Please ignore my random ramblings and forgive me if I make no sense. Again.. I didn’t take any notes or anything. I hadn’t planned to review, so I don’t remember all the little details I’d like to chat about. I’ll do my best.
ONE LAST SPOILER WARNING.
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I’m not even sure where to start. SO I guess I’ll start with the factions. I actually really enjoyed the factions. I loved the concept of them and what each one stood for. I feel like the faux-science-genetic-explanation of the factions in Allegiant was a cope out. It didn’t seem plausible and it didn’t make sense. Honestly.. at the end of Insurgent, the video Tris sees with Edith Prior.. If they had followed that concept through, it would have been pretty epic and awesome! But the idea Roth went with instead? Sigh.
Tris herself… She frustrated me a lot. I loved her in Divergent. She annoyed me in Insurgent. And I just wanted to punch her in Allegiant. She goes from being careless, risking her life in stupid ways in Insurgent to being stupid and thinking she knows everything in Allegiant. She’s stubborn and fights with Four about the dumbest things.
And don’t even get me started on Four. First of all, his POV was mostly pointless. I know everyone is swooning over him and thinks it’s great we get to see inside his head in Allegiant. But if we weren’t told in the chapter headers who was speaking, it wouldn’t be obvious. Tris and Four’s voices are so similar, you can’t tell them apart. There’s nothing distinct about either character.
Several characters get killed off, some that had been with the series since Divergent. Their loss was felt pretty badly. It was painful, especially with one character – And I’m talking secondary characters right now. I’m getting to that other one… But honestly, most of the secondary characters didn’t really.. do much in Allegiant. They weren’t significant and were almost like background noise, unfortunately. Plus, there was no character development with the characters introduced in Allegiant. They were just there to flesh out the plot and move the story along.
There are a lot of themes relating to choices and sacrifice and what family means. It kind of felt forced though. Like it was all meant to get Tris to one point: her death.
And yes, now we’ll talk about that. First of all.. I had seen a partial spoiler on Twitter about someone dying. And from the level of outrage, I figured it was one of our two big players. But honestly, I figured it would be Four! I never, ever thought it would be Tris. Now.. Let me preface this by saying that I didn’t cry. I know a lot of people sobbed their eyes out, but I didn’t. I was upset.. My heart was pounding throughout the entire scene. But I didn’t cry. I think part of that was just because of.. Disbelief. I kept waiting for it to not be true. How can you kill off the main character?!?!? It’s just not done! Especially in a franchise as big as Divergent! That’s like killing off Harry or Katniss.
It’s just. not. done!
I wouldn’t say it completely ruined the series for me. I know it did for some people. I won’t be re-reading them. What’s the point? But it definitely took a lot away from the series for me. A part of me can understand why Roth did it, what her justification was. But it could have had a different outcome. Heck, I read a piece of fan fiction that had an alternate ending, and it was amazing!
All in all, what it came down to was this: If this were any other series, if it wasn’t a huge franchise with a huge following, how would I rate it, based on the plot and killing off a main character? And so I went with a 3. Average. It wasn’t spectacular and I’m still upset Tris died. The “messed up genetics” explanation for the factions was just weird and forced. But it still wasn’t a terrible book. It was just okay.
I totally agree about the whole killing off the main character part. I think that is another reason why so many were shocked and mad about Tris dying. Four dying would have been heartbreaking but not as much as Tris. It has been her story from the beginning, so for her to go through all she went through for her to just die in the end was like a big slap in the face to me. Just saying. Even though I hate the ending, Veronica Roth is still a great Author. Great review!
I agree with it being a slap in the face! Tris suffered so much loss and tragedy in her life.. It just didn’t see fair. But I agree – Veroncia Roth is a great author and she was brave to do what she did.
I read the first 2 books in the series and I enjoyed them very much. I agree with you about Tris being annoying in the second book. UGH! I didn’t read the third one because I couldn’t stay away from spoilers and I was just too upset to read it. I feel it would be a waste of time reading it now. Great review girl ;)
Awww, I’m sorry you got spoiled! Do you think you’ll ever bother reading it, later on down the road? It was pretty upsetting to read!
Nah. I might listen to the audiobook but not anytime soon.
Aww, that sucks! I’m sorry :(
You know, Meredith, this series has been recommended to me quite a few times over the years, but I don’t know if I’ll ever get around to reading it *sigh*
I didn’t read the spoilers here, though—just in case I do! lol
Hmm.. I mean.. I’m very upset with how it ended, but I would still recommend the series. Overall, it was a great series. I hope you can get around to it at some point! ANd I’m glad you’ve avoided spoilers, just in case!
Meredith, it was so funny today—I went to our NJ SCBWI Free Craft Day, and in one of the workshops, agent Sean McCarthy mentioned THE MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY books as an example of something and warned us if we haven’t read it yet, he was going to spoil it. Since I own the first book of the series but haven’t read it, I literally plugged my ears for the minute he was talking about it :) I HATE spoilers! I’m not one of those people who checks out the last page of the book before I begin reading. lol I’ve never understood that and I never will. It removes all the delicious suspense and wonder of reading the book!
Agreed! I know a lot of people who love hearing spoilers first, or read the last page first. I wouldn’t want to. With some books, I don’t even read spoiler-free reviews until after I’ve read the book. I like the surprise!
Okay so it turns out that the “spoiler” that I had heard about was false. THANK GOODNESS. Allegiant was not my favorite book of the series (actually Insurgent was) but I commend Roth for doing what she did. I know she’s got a lot of angry people but it was gutsy as heck to kill off Tris. A week ago I would have put money on it being Four who dies.
I did like the dual POV but I felt like in doing that we lost a little something. I can’t put my finger on exactly what we lost but it felt strange.
I’m curious to know what you thought the spoiler was! And yeah, I thought it was going to be Four who died, too. I do commend Roth for being brave enough to do what she did, but I’m still upset. And I agree, the dual POV definitely took something away from the story, and it was so unnecessary, too, because you could barely tell their POV’s apart.
I LOVED the first two books of this series and was looking forward to the third one. As soon as I heard the spoilers*, though, and read some reviews on Amazon, I chose not to buy the third one, and immediately sold my copies of the first two and rescinded every “read Divergent!” recommendation I had given to friends or family.
(*I sought out spoilers deliberately–I’m the furthest thing from a spoilerphobe.)
From the reviews I read, not only did Tris die, but she died unnecessarily, and THAT was the part I knew I wouldn’t be able to forgive. So I chose to forget about the series, and I don’t know that I’ll read any future books by the author.
I definitely don’t blame you for not wanting to read Allegiant, especially after seeing the spoiler! It’s not even worth it :\ Her death was DEFINITELY unnecessary and I’m still upset over it! :(
I accidentally saw the HUGE SPOILER on Goodreads in a comment on a group board that wasn’t even talking about Allegiant!! I wasn’t even half way through the book and I had to read the rest of the story knowing what happened. I was so mad.
Oh no!!! I’m so sorry :( Spoilers are the worst! Especially, that’s a HUGE spoiler!
Ooooooh, spoilers are the worst! :(
Very much so!! :\
ugh, agree on so many levels. I was pissed off for about 5 days after reading the end, my mind going through every single plausible outcome that did NOT involve her dying.
a lot of people have said it was brave to kill her, personally I found it gimmicky and unnecessary. the ONLY way I will support a main character death is if there was truly no other way to end the story. that was clearly not the case here.
like, she RESISTED THE DEATH SERUM. through sheer force of will. THAT is a badass ending right there.
but no. she had to die for no reason, shot by a character who didn’t make sense in the first place whose presence in the final scene is imausible at best.
anyway, the real point of this was to ask if you would link to the fanfic you mentioned above, haha. may have gotten a tad carried away.
I 100% agree with you. It was a very, very frustrating ending and I think there was a better way to end it. As for the fanfic, I honestly can’t remember; it’s been too long. I think it was this one –> https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9799717/1/Allegiant-An-Alternate-Ending <-- But you can Google search alternate Allegiant endings and find several different ones now.