I'll review this when I don't feel like shit from reading this.

Something funny happened to me as I was reading "Allegiant".

I didn't go in with a completely unbiased mind. I hadn't enjoyed "Divergent" or "Insurgent", and, as an added bonus, I'd also spoiled myself thoroughly about the ending (I'm the kind of person who clicks on the spoiler tag. Curiosity is my middle name.) I had a ton of preconceived notions, and I thought that this would be a fairly straightforward, for-the-sake-of-research-and-goals type of read.

It didn't turn out to be like that. Because, halfway through the book, I had this thought, and once it took root, suddenly I saw everything (the whole series, not just this book) in a completely different light. I daresay it changed my entire opinion of it. It started off with me muttering about how Tris never struck me as a particularly interesting narrator, and how she was so annoyingly perfect, and how she didn't learn anything. And then I thought:

What if this wasn't Tris' story at all? What if it's Four's?

Content note: Discussion about abuse, sexism and gun culture under the cut. 

Also, spoilers.

     I sat on reviewing this for a long time. I have been trying to discern how I really felt about it. The up swell of hate this has generated isn't really something I can understand. If anything, I feel that the second book was the "bad" book in this bunch. I'm glad that it got moving semi-quickly in this book.

    The faults I have found with the series is it basically reiterates itself over and over again, with slightly more dire circumstances. The confusion of the dual narratives is something I understand complaining about. They had the same voice and without differentiation it just felt a little pointless. After Four's narratives, he would show up and tell Tris everything that happened...which is something that could have been done without being taken away on the 14th rebellion against x, y, z.

    This book doesn't fall flat, but it does pale against the first book. I never felt as captured (although I did feel more involved) as I did in the first book.

    All in all this book provides the emotional depth that the 1st book couldn't and all the character development that the 2nd really should have had.

Spoilers, like in the first sentence



     In answer to did she just kill Tris for shock? I don't feel that she did at all. I picture it this way: In action movies people dodge thousands of bullets and have infinite ammunition against their enemies, or infinite deus ex machina. People die in war and people sacrifice in rebellions; I guess I'm saying I appreciate Tris' sacrifice.

     The one thing it robbed any character of is Caleb's redemption, which to be honest was clunky to me. No one just offers themselves up after 2 lines of dialogue.



     I recommend this series, as it is entertaining and interesting. I just pray people can make it through Insurgent.

I liked the first two in the Trilogy. I don't know what I hated more about this book. Was it the sloppy explanation of what was beyond the fence? The over complication of Genetically Pure people and Genetically Damaged people? Maybe this complication could have worked had the author thought out the plot, story continuity, and scenario fully. Instead we were given this ridiculous ending to what had been a really good book series. The sex scene between Tris and Four read like a horrible True Romance magazine. Characters like Four's mother suddenly changed her entire character for her son's love. If it had been that simple, why didn't she kidnap him from his abusive father? What is worse, being factionless or being tortured? Then Four's father just leaves even though he has a history of being an aggressive tyrant in his home and love of power in the public? It seemed as if the author was sloppily trying to tie up lose ends. Nothing compares to the end. I could have withstood Tris dying. I expected it from the moment I began to read TWO perspectives in the book. I knew for certain she was dying after her and Four had sex. It just doesn't tend to happen in YA books. For them to allow her to put in one of the worst written romantic love making scenes I've ever had the misfortune to read, I knew the main character Tris was dead. However what stunned me was the undignified manner in which it happened. For crying out loud the sex scene had more poise in its thought and writing. I think at times the author highlighted how the three books took place in a short space of time. It wasn't the lead up for years or even one whole year. At the end of this story we had a 16 year old girl in terrible grief over her parents dying by protecting her (a noble, good and generally right thing for any parent to do for any of their children) and then the loss of her last remaining living family member--her brother through his base treachery (THAT WAS NEVER ADEQUATELY EXPLAINED TO MAKE HIM IN ANY FORM FORGIVABLE OR REDEEMABLE A FIGURE. ALL HE COULD DO WAS OFFER THAT THE LEADER OF ERUDITE WAS CONVINCINGLY MANIPULATIVE. I'm reaching for manipulative because he never explains exactly what on earth that woman could have told him to make him betray his entire family and his values for her cause.) was in a way lost to her as well. In the short space of time the story takes place Tris is always a 16 year old girl. In the armed conflicts in her home she loses nearly everyone she ever cared about. The author of this book tries to make Tris' final act a graceful stroke of self sacrifice like her parents did for her. I'm sorry if I read a young 16 year old rationalizing her suicidal wishes. At the end she was a 16 year old GIRL who was in terrible grief for her tremendous losses. Instead of making her end fit the spirit I loved in Tris in the first two books we see the same scenario she was supposed to 'grown from' play out as she martyrs herself. Nothing about that is okay with me. I think the woman who wrote Divergent and Insurgent could have written a better book to end Tris' story. Tris could have died a number of ways, but why did she die in the one way where it showed her character had zero growth throughout the series? As someone with Bipolar I who has tried to commit suicide and lived to tell the tale (luckily) when I was 19 years old I was offended at first by the fatalism in Tris' character. I was a child when I began to have suicidal ideations. I only got caught when I was very close to successful. I am thankful EVERY SINGLE DAY I was saved. My mother was dying. My father was mentally gone. I understand the grief of adoloscent girls intimately. To honor the ones who passed on you don't do something fatal. You honor their sacrafice by living, and living well with honor. So the rationalization for Tris' death makes sense only if she lied to Four. Only if she lied to him about her love. About living for him. The fact that the author herself lost sight that she was writing the story of a 16 year old girl in a dystopian world is troubling. Tris had gifts but wasn't an adult super soldier. The ending was ridiculous with no real meaning. Tris deserved a death that expressed meaning, growth, the love she had for FOUR. Instead we had her doing the same thing she did in the previous two books. In the end Tris Prior died for nothing. The irony is the corny message from the author to 'mend each other' through our social relationships. She can write this when her own main character didn't have the will power to do that! In my opinion this hypocrisy is what makes her death meaningless. And it is a shame--the first two books were really good in my opinion. I wonder if the author was rushed to publish? Or was she so arrogant that anyone who tried to address these issues were shot down by her hubris? This book is an example of how good editors are crucial to a successful book. If only to be a spare pair of eyes. Something went badly wrong and this book feels like the rough draft that got published without any of the major story issues being ironed out.

“And I don't want to die anymore. I am up to the challenge of bearing the guilt and the grief, up to facing the difficulties that life has put in my path. Some days are harder than others, but I am ready to live each one of the. I can't sacrifice myself, this time.”
- Tris

But we learn that Tris isn't true to her word. Nor is she consistent with ANY growth. It is sad. If Tris would have died in a way where she wasn't PURPOSEFULLY sacrificing her promises, supposed character growth, and loving future with Four along with the friends she could help mend through the grief of many, many characters!!!

Allegiant is the 3rd (and final) book in a young adult dystopian series now making it's way into the cinema.  I started reading the first book (Divergant) because I was able to pick it up at a publishers warehouse for $8.  It took me a while to get into because the gaps in the world building and the stiltedness of the writing made it hard for me to lose myself, but by the end I was intrigued with where the story was going and the themes that were being raised, enough for me to buy the second book and put up with the haphazard writing style. It was just like reading a little online fan fic or something.  I have since given both books away and was not willing to purchase the 3rd (I love library ebooks).
I won't sport with your time by giving you a plot summary - just read the back of the book.  What I will do is give you my opinions.  I will start with the negative..
What I have a big problem with is writing that enflames the passions of teenagers who already have enough pressure on their hormones.  It's irresponsible role modeling that is unkind and unhelpful to kids and young adults who are trying to stay in control of a body that most of the time feels like it's working against them.  It encourages stepping over that line, letting your hormones take over past the point of control where anything can happen.  Even if a person spouted the idea that teenaged sex is okay when exercised responsibly - this book doesn't talk to kids from an ethical or logical viewpoint.  It engages their hormones.  I think it is realistic to expect that some of the scenes of this book could be in young girls minds as they meet up with their boyfriends and search for dark secluded corners.  It could lead to big regrets. But this has nothing to do with the writing itself...
If possible, it's even worse than before. There is a quality to the writing that is both mundane and overly perfect.  I know it seems like a contradiction but this is what I mean: the plot and interactions aren't written in an interesting style (I would say stilted and bland are two good descriptive words), instead the style is specific to moving the points of the plot along.  Things are said like, "I can explain the rest of the details later."  It's not a real thing people say, it's just too much to write down in any other way.  The characters say the 'perfect' thing, which many writers do but they hide it in such a way as the reader isn't aware of it.  It smacks of amaturism to me, rather than a published book.
I also feel like logical reactions in the characters are replaced and sculpted to the plot which leaves you wondering... why don't they care more?  Where's the inner turmoil?  The shock defiance?  They watch people being killed because they believe in something that's not real and yet aren't demanding for freedom and truth.  They do feel these things, but not all the time.  Only when it's convenient to the plot. There are so many gaping plot holes. Every single character has twisted motives.
At the end of the day, it was the promise of a big reveal that made everything makes sense that kept me reading up to the third book. And it was a massive let down. While genetic purity vs genetic damage is an interesting idea it was executed so poorly that it makes me wish I had all those hours of my life back. I wish I hadn't bothered.
What I do like are some of the underlying themes in the relationships.  There are some possitive messages in there that aren't often attacked by modern authors such as love being a choice.  I like the way Roth doesn't feel the need to pull out the angst between her hero and heroine but allows them to heal their relationship in a more normal time space than other books would for tension purposes.
And, for the most part the plot has pretty good pace.  I can feel myself being pulled along, chapter by chapter. But there were stagnent portions where nothing really happened... didn't make sense to me. Why would you sit around and do nothing while your friends and family are engaging in civil war?
It's also good being split in narrators between Tobias and Tris.  It adds a little variety to the end of the series, though as the book goes on it gets harder to tell the two characters apart.
I would NOT recommend this book to anyone.  I would particularly warn parents from letting teenagers read this.  While not all the content is "smut" it's just not worth sifting through anyway.  There are much better books for young adults out there. (Maria  V Snyder's Inside Out and Outside In, for example).
I say good on Veronica Roth for turning out 3 books, but I am dubious about what it says about us as a reading society that they can be loved to such fanfare.  We are not as discerning readers as we once were.