Review: Allegiant by Veronica Roth

Allegiant

Author: Veronica Roth
Series: Divergent #3
Publisher: HarperCollins
Genre: YA Dystopian
Format: Hardcover, 544 pages
Release Date: October 22, 2013
Source: Personal Library, Bought
Rating: 3 Stars
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Synopsis from Goodreads:

 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.

My Review: 

***This is a spoiler free review***

I’ve been waiting for this book for so long. We’ve all been waiting for this book for so long. When it arrived at my house on Tuesday, I practically ran to the door and ripped the box out of the delivery guy’s hands. I danced around my living room with it like an idiot. Then I started reading. And I realized that we got to read from Four’s perspective! I don’t know how I didn’t know this, but I didn’t. I was pumped. I love multiple POVs and I’ve wanted to get inside Four’s head for a while. (I haven’t read any of the novellas yet.)

Unfortunately, I was disappointed with the shifting POVs. Four’s voice wasn’t very distinct. I found myself forgetting that I was reading from his perspective. Then, when he would say something like “Tris said”, it would jar me. His voice and Tris’s just sounded so similar. They are such different people that it shouldn’t have been like this. I understand why Veronica Roth chose to write from both perspectives. It was necessary to the story, but it could have been done a lot better. In addition, I kind of felt like Four turned into a wimp in this book. And maybe it’s because we were in his head, but I just always saw him as this super strong character and in this book I saw an insecure child. He lost some of his swoon-factor for me.

I have been dying to know what’s outside the city for a year now. Then I found out and it was like a slowly deflating balloon. So disappointing. I thought it was kind of lame. Not exciting at all. Just more typical dystopian novel stuff. This book was a lot slower paced than the first two. At times I felt like the plot was dragging. I think if what had been outside the city was….cooler?….the plot would have moved a lot faster. But it didn’t. And I was sad.

Tris and Four still hadn’t worked their crap out in this book. I wanted them to be together, truly be together for the majority of this book. And they weren’t. They were still constantly bickering and arguing. I miss their relationship from Divergent. That being said, the times that they were together in this book were magical and had me crying and squealing.

“I fell in love with him. But I don’t just stay with him by default as if there’s no one else available to me. I stay with him because I choose to, every day that I wake up, every day that we fight or lie to each other or disappoint each other. I choose him over and over again, and he chooses me.” –Tris

I love Tris so much. She's so smart and so brave and she's come so far throughout this trilogy. She's one of the most kick-ass characters I've ever read about. Every book she has learned something new and this one is no exception. I just wish that Four would listen to her!!!  

Four on the other hand, seemed to go backwards in this book. He didn't seem like he learned anything and he almost seemed to get careless. I felt like he didn't develop at all in this book. Maybe he just didn’t develop the way I wanted him to. I don’t even know. I’m so confused over my feelings for this book. I was really happy that Four got some closure with his parents though. His relationships with both his mom and his dad were really complicated and he was able to deal with them in this book.

If you haven’t read it yet, prepare yourselves. Not everybody makes it out. Veronica Roth was not afraid to kill her characters. And I approved. Sad as it was (I cried so many tears), I admire the fact that she took the risk. This is a dystopian society. The city of Chicago is extremely unsettled. War is brewing between faction supporters and the factionless. Death is part of war and Roth doesn’t let us forget.

I’ve been trying to figure out how to rate this book since I started writing this review. I just don’t know. I didn’t hate it. Everybody is in an uproar over the ending. The ending shocked me. I never saw it coming, but I understood it. And I felt like, had I opened my eyes throughout the whole series, I would have seen it coming. So I really didn’t hate the book. But I didn’t really enjoy it either. At least not like I enjoyed the first two books. So how do I rate this?

Veronica Roth did tie everything up nicely. I didn’t have any unanswered questions. She closed it up enough that we knew where all the characters were, but also left the world open enough that we’re not sure exactly what was going to happen in the future. It was the perfect combination.

“Sometimes it [bravery] is nothing more than gritting your teeth through the pain, and the work of every day, the slow walk toward a better life.” –Four

The writing was beautiful. I will give Veronica Roth that. There are so many sticky notes in my copy. It’s crazy how many lines I marked. There were lots of feels in this book about many different things. I pretty much cried the whole time reading. My heart is broken. My soul is broken. I feel empty. But, I think I’m going to give it a solid 3 stars. Obviously you should read this book. Especially if you’ve already read Divergent and Insurgent. Even if you haven’t, you should read this series. It’s a great series with lots of lessons learned and some awesome kick-ass characters. I guess I just expected more out of this conclusion and I didn’t get it. Happy reading all!  

Have you read it yet? What are your thoughts? Please do not put spoilers in the comments section! If you do, they will be deleted. If you would like to discuss the book with me privately you can email me at lockhartbecca@gmail.com.