Book Review: Allegiant by Veronica Roth
Allegiant by Veronica Roth
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release Date: October 22, 2013
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
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.
***This review will contain spoilers from the first two books in the series but not for this book***
I procrastinated writing this review therefore it won’t be as detailed as I would have liked it to be. I apologize for that.
Allegiant is told in alternating first person by both Tris and Tobias. It turned out to be really confusing because Tris and Tobias’s inner voices are almost exactly the same. At some point in most of the chapters I had to look back to the beginning of the chapter to see who was narrating.
Tris and her friends finally learn the reason that the factions were created. I found this reason confusing and convoluted . It made me wonder if Roth had outlined the entire trilogy before she started with Divergent.
(My 10 year old son read the trilogy too. I asked him what he thought about it and he said he wondered what was going on in other countries while the experiment in Chicago was going on. I, too wondered what was going on in other countries and cities. Usually dystopian books at least make mention of what is happening in the rest of the world. Not a major point but that was a 10 year old’s thought.)
I knew before I started reading Allegiant that the ending was controversial. It was a love/hate situation with Divergent fans. I have to say that the ending didn’t bother me. It seemed like a realistic ending from my perspective. Of course there are probably other endings that would have been realistic as well but this one satisfied me.
Even though I have a lot of criticism for this book, I’m glad I read it at least for the sake of closure. It wasn’t all bad, it’s just that the problems with it were the ones that stuck in my head after waiting so long to write this review. It was disappointing that after the awesomeness of Divergent, each of the following books were progressively not as awesome. I’m interested to see how this will play out in terms of the movies. They could easily end up being movies that are better than the books if tweaks are made. We shall see.
My reviews of the first two books in this trilogy:
