Well, friends, I finally read the concluding book of the Divergent series. It’s difficult for me to fully review this book without discussing spoilers. So…if you don’t want to know spoilers, stop reading this review right now.
Sigh. I have mixed feelings about Allegiant
Things I didn’t like: halfway through the book, I started to wonder if Roth is a one trick pony. Though her characters are interesting, deep and real, I think her storylines are relatively repetitive.
At first when I read about the genetic damage twist, I was really excited and thought it was an interesting direction to take the story. But when it became more about the government deceiving and repressing people I got bored. I was even more bored with Four and Triss’s never ending plans to fix everything.
I thought Roth kind of contradicted herself when she wrote Four’s character in such a way that it seemed he did in fact have weaknesses that seemed directly linked to his genetic impurities, but then the whole purpose of the book seemed to be that though they had genetic flaws, it didn’t mean the humans in the story were broken.
I didn’t love that Triss died, but I also thought her death scene was beautiful. I also appreciated how her death brought her full circle as it related to the mix of factions she identified with and then the way in which Four grieved and celebrated Triss’s life.
That said, her death was pretty much a total buzz kill and the reason I have dragged my feet so long in reading the book (I knew that spoiler a long time ago). I also thought it was totally lame that Triss died instead of a total loser character, such as Caleb. If you’re going to kill off your main character, at least write it in such a way that the sacrifice is one the reader can love. I recognize that there were aspects of Triss’s character that came full circle as a result of her sacrifice, but I don’t like that she died, and I hate that she died so Caleb live.
Ugh. Caleb is a bottom-dweller.
It will be interesting to see what Roth writes next. I don’t know if I’m invested enough in her Divergent world that if her next is a spin-off of the Divergent books that I would want to read it, which is unusual for me. I almost always want to know more about characters’ lives and their worlds after the story ends. But not this time. Sad.
I hope she writes something completely unrelated and fresh.
Overall Rating:
Parent’s guide:
- Sex: A mildly descriptive sex scene. The description was pre-sex act – touching/kissing stuff and then the scene ends and sex is implied and reflected upon.
- Language:a few swear words maybe, I don’t remember.
- Violence:Lots of gun violence and fighting. Multiple people die.
- Drug Use:In the Divergent world, serums are used for a variety of reasons. Not specifically drug abuse, but some of the serums are used to hurt people.
Related articles
- Joint Review: Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge (thebooksmugglers.com)
- Divergent – Pineneedles Goes Popular (pineneedlesandpapertrails.wordpress.com)
Allegiant
Divergent
Science fiction - YA
Katherine Tegen Books
October 22, 2013
Hardcover
544
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 explosive conclusion to Veronica Roth's #1 New York Times bestselling Divergent trilogy reveals the secrets of the dystopian world that has captivated millions of readers in Divergent and Insurgent.
[…] a staple of science-fiction since the birth of the genre. And while contemporary YA authors like Veronica Roth and Ally Condie have brought the concept of the dystopian novel back to the mainstream, many of the […]