Bookworm Blurbs

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. (source) 

If you've been following my updates and reviews on this series from the point when I started reading Divergent, you are probably shocked to see how high I rated this book. When I posted my last status update last night, I would have been shocked to know how high I would end up rating this, too. But when I finished this book this morning, I felt so satisfied and so anxious to review it, because this book truly had the most perfect ending ever, and for me, that was enough to change my opinion of the book as a whole.

Allegiant shares many of the problems that its predecessors have. I really do believe that Veronica Roth structured this series entirely wrong. Insurgent could have easily been covered in 100 pages or less; it should have been a section of another book or a novella. Allegiant, on the other hand, should have been split up into at least 2 books. The answers that we finally get about this dystopian society are far too complex to have been squeezed into just this one book. I feel that the genetic debates that are described were oversimplified as a result. This part of the story is fascinating; it deserves more than what it got. 

Additionally, as you saw from my rant last night, Tris and Tobias continued their faulty communication for much of this book. They drove me absolutely bonkers - from the beginning of Insurgent on, they'd lie to each other and keep secrets from each other, then get into fights and conclude that they needed to be more open with each other, and would then return immediately to their bad habits. This continued in Allegiant, and then finally, finally it stopped, but I do think that if a certain even hadn't occurred that altered the state of their relationship, it would have continued happening in the future. I'm glad that things worked out the way that they did, because the way that I saw things going would have been completely unrealistic. 

What I absolutely love about this book is that Veronica Roth miraculously chose to veer away from any semblance of a fairy tale ending. I think that this is why Allegiant is the book in the trilogy that so many fans despise - they crave the happily ever after, and Veronica Roth completely shatters any hope of that happening. And yet, at the end, we see that even though things didn't end the way that we wanted them to, everything's working out for the best. Which is exactly what this book needed, and it's exactly what so many authors are afraid to do. Based on the rest of this series, I didn't think Veronica Roth was capable of such an ending and I'm so glad that she was. It was the only thing that made sense and it's the only realistic way that this could have ended. 

I'm sorry if this review is coming across as vague, especially the paragraph just before this one. I don't want to give away the huge twist at the end, and even now, I'm afraid that I have. I understand why so many people didn't like this book, but in my opinion, it's the best in the whole series, despite its structural faults and the various plot aspects that annoyed me. I still maintain that this series as a whole is overrated; however, if you're a fan of young adult and dystopia novels, I do think that you'll enjoy the Divergent trilogy. While flawed, it's definitely worth the read.