Allegiant

Allegiant
by Veronica Roth

Genre:  Young Adult
Pages: 544
Published:  10/22/13 by HarperCollins
Format:  ebook

My rating:
3.5 out of 5 stars





 
I came into this book with fairly low expectations. I can't even imagine the kind of pressure Veronica Roth was under to conclude her wildly popular trilogy in a satisfactory way. I've read enough of these types of trilogies to understand that writing a perfect conclusion is extremely rare and difficult. I knew that the book would probably not be exactly what I wanted, but I was hoping to be able to walk away from the series feeling satisfied with the story and the characters.

After finishing Allegiant tonight, I can say that I am satisfied. I didn't think this was a perfect book. I think it is my least favorite in the trilogy. Though not for the same reason as everyone else! It appears, based on the reviews I've been reading, that MANY people are unsatisfied and upset with the ending. I disagree. I thought the ending was a good and natural fit to where this story had been leading. I don't think Veronica Roth just took the easy way out. I don't think she wrote this to simply to create that big twist at the end. I believe the ending was purposeful and authentic to the characters; it fit well with the themes and purpose of the story.

My biggest complaint with the book is the way that the story is written from both Tris and Tobias' points of views. As the story progressed, I get that there were times when it was helpful and maybe necessary to have Tobias' point of view. But, I didn't find much distinction at all between their two voices. Sometimes I would read a whole chapter thinking that I was reading Tris' POV (I always forgot to look at the title at the beginning of the chapters!), only to figure out at the end that it was really Tobias. Then I felt the need to go back and re-read the chapter so I could read it from the correct perspective. It was annoying. If Roth felt it was necessary to include both voices, there needed to be something more distinguishable between their voices. Or maybe they didn't need to switch quite so frequently.

Also, I felt like this book was fairly slow paced, especially at the beginning. There was a lot of explaining that needed to be done, but that also made it kind of boring at times. I felt like "boring" was a word that could not be used to describe the first two books, so I was a little sad that this book didn't quite have the same intensity.

There are other things that I liked about the book: the realistic portrayal of a committed relationship with Tris and Tobias, gaining another (although not completely original) view on the dangers of prejudice and racism, and just being able to see where all the characters in this series end up when all is said and done.

I think it is a fair and mostly satisfying end to the trilogy, though I can't say that I loved it as much as the first two books.

(Edited to add:  After thinking about this for a few months, I am liking it less and less.  I'm giving it a generous 3.5 stars.)