Series: Divergent Trilogy #3
Genre: YA, dystopian
Published on October 22, 2013
Published by Katherine Tegen Books
Pages: 526
Read From: 11.14.13 - 11.16.13
SYNOPSIS
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.
Review
Cover Blurb: Yes or No? I was fine with the covers when I first started reading this trilogy. They're shiny, they're themed, they're interesting. But what's with the water? Did the designer just feel compelled to continue with the elements, since the other two have them? Is it an allegory of how water wears away stone or something? What's with the water? Anyway, I do love the orange background.
Characters: By this point, I really don't care about anyone. Tris isn't exactly unlikable, but I really could not care less about what happens to her. She's made too many rash decisions, her revulsion for guns is irritating (yes, we know that being forced to shoot a friend was scarring, but be sensible; you need to carry a gun!), and her continued inability to inform any of her plans is plain stupidity on her part. And we wonder why she keeps getting into these situations? My affection for Four/Tobias died with Insurgent, and it continued to die even further in Allegiant. There's no particular reason; I just didn't really feel any attachment for him. All of the other characters blended into one. Before you say, "Well, you should have re-read the other two first! Then you would remember everyone!" let me explain something: I have had to wait in between sequels before, and I have picked up the newest release without re-reading any previous ones, and I remembered all of the characters and their significance to the series. In the Divergent Trilogy, all other characters besides Tobias and Tris are boiled down to a handful of names and personalities that meld into faceless, rememberless pieces of cardboard. Except Uriah. But somehow I still didn't care for him all that much. My feelings towards everyone was just blah.
The Romance: So Tris and Tobias are having issues. I'm entirely sure why, because quite frankly, every single argument they have in Allegiant felt totally contrived. It's rather like the Author felt like there should be some tension between them, so whenever they disagreed, it turned into accusations and petty name calling. I realize people fight in real life, but these arguments didn't seem even remotely real. I rolled my eyes and sighed loudly every time they started disagreeing. Really, guys? You're going to argue over that? When you should be saving the world?
Plot: And here is where the whole book totally and utterly falls to pieces. Insurgent's ending is what kept me from throwing this entire trilogy aside. Its revelation was intriguing and surprising enough that I wanted to know what happened next. Allegiant totally disappoints. Now that Tris and Tobias know that there are more people outside of the city and that it is the Divergent who must go out and help said people, they want to leave. But the current rebels who control the city don't want them to. Sounds like a perfect set-up for escape plans to be made, then executed, while avoiding hazards and obstacles, right? No joke - Tris and Tobias escape to the outside within two chapters. The book then proceeds to conveniently have them run into just the people they need to run into in order to get everything smoothly explained to them. And the explanation . . . [Spoiler] The city the result of a genetic experiment gone wrong. The government tried to genetically engineer people to where the bad genes that make people violent and the like were taken out. But things didn't work out the way the government thought it would (never does), and they realized that they must fix what they did wrong. They put several genetically damaged people in several different cities and waited for the damaged genes to be bred out, and for a new generation of pure genes to begin. These pure genes are the Divergent. [End spoiler] Unlike a lot of reviewers who gave Allegiant a negative review, I do believe that the Author had this plot twist planned from the beginning. But the problem is it's just a bad plot twist. The Divergent really aren't special after all? And then it turns out that a person can display Divergent traits, but not actually be Divergent? That makes a lot of sense. The story then spirals into an even worse bog. Apparently the GD (genetically damaged) aren't treated as well as they should be, and the GP (genetically pure) are the upper class of society. So the GD want to start a revolution, and they pull Tobias into it. What ensues is pretty much a repeat of Insurgent's storyline, only with fewer meetings in the cafeteria. I wasn't emotionally invested in the GDs cause because I quite frankly didn't like any of the rebel leaders. Meanwhile, another rebellion is stirring in the city, led by a group called the Allegiant (who, by the way, are not as important to the plot as you would think, given the fact that the book is named after them). But we don't want to side with them any more than we want to side with the rebels from Insurgent who now control the city. In the end, there are no sides to pick, the rebellions are all pointless, and the Reader wonders why, in the name of all things good and holy, they ever suffered through the other two books, let alone this 526-page monstrosity. The plot meanders, and nothing happens. For a book about three different rebellions, one would think that there would be a heck of a lot more going on. Not so.
Believability: Not applicable.
Writing Style: First person, present tense. Each chapter alternates between Tobias and Tris' narratives. All I can say about the writing style is: thank God each chapter told me who was narrating, because there is absolutely no distinction between Tris and Tobias' narration voice. They sounded the exact same. Sometimes I found myself forgetting which of them was narrating!
Content: None, other than lots of smooching and feeling under one another's shirt. Roll eyes. Oh yes, and there is a gay character, who's thrown in for no apparent reason. He's just gay because that's the fad now.
Conclusion: This is another area where I disagree with my fellow reviewers. Many say that they think the Author wrote herself into a corner and wanted to end the trilogy on a shock factor; she wanted to be original. It's possible that that is what she wanted, but I do believe that she had it planned from the beginning. It just had that feeling of pre-planned about it. That said, I also thought it was silly. It wasn't emotional for me because I wasn't attached to Tris, and it was just poorly executed. [Spoiler] She's survived all these things and then she just gets shot? Just like that? Really? [End spoiler] Divergent was interesting; Tris surprised me and I rather enjoyed the concept. Insurgent was boring, every character decided to have an emotional breakdown, well over half of it took place in one cafeteria or another, but the ending made me want to find out what happened next. Allegiant was just an utter fail. The revelations were silly, the ending was poorly done, I didn't care about anyone, and I just couldn't wait for it to end.
Recommended Audience: Quite honestly, I would have difficulty recommending this to anyone. While some fans might love it, I think the majority of them out there will be disappointed, if not heartbroken.
Others in This Trilogy:
1)Divergent
2)Insurgent
3)Allegiant
Characters: By this point, I really don't care about anyone. Tris isn't exactly unlikable, but I really could not care less about what happens to her. She's made too many rash decisions, her revulsion for guns is irritating (yes, we know that being forced to shoot a friend was scarring, but be sensible; you need to carry a gun!), and her continued inability to inform any of her plans is plain stupidity on her part. And we wonder why she keeps getting into these situations? My affection for Four/Tobias died with Insurgent, and it continued to die even further in Allegiant. There's no particular reason; I just didn't really feel any attachment for him. All of the other characters blended into one. Before you say, "Well, you should have re-read the other two first! Then you would remember everyone!" let me explain something: I have had to wait in between sequels before, and I have picked up the newest release without re-reading any previous ones, and I remembered all of the characters and their significance to the series. In the Divergent Trilogy, all other characters besides Tobias and Tris are boiled down to a handful of names and personalities that meld into faceless, rememberless pieces of cardboard. Except Uriah. But somehow I still didn't care for him all that much. My feelings towards everyone was just blah.
The Romance: So Tris and Tobias are having issues. I'm entirely sure why, because quite frankly, every single argument they have in Allegiant felt totally contrived. It's rather like the Author felt like there should be some tension between them, so whenever they disagreed, it turned into accusations and petty name calling. I realize people fight in real life, but these arguments didn't seem even remotely real. I rolled my eyes and sighed loudly every time they started disagreeing. Really, guys? You're going to argue over that? When you should be saving the world?
Plot: And here is where the whole book totally and utterly falls to pieces. Insurgent's ending is what kept me from throwing this entire trilogy aside. Its revelation was intriguing and surprising enough that I wanted to know what happened next. Allegiant totally disappoints. Now that Tris and Tobias know that there are more people outside of the city and that it is the Divergent who must go out and help said people, they want to leave. But the current rebels who control the city don't want them to. Sounds like a perfect set-up for escape plans to be made, then executed, while avoiding hazards and obstacles, right? No joke - Tris and Tobias escape to the outside within two chapters. The book then proceeds to conveniently have them run into just the people they need to run into in order to get everything smoothly explained to them. And the explanation . . . [Spoiler] The city the result of a genetic experiment gone wrong. The government tried to genetically engineer people to where the bad genes that make people violent and the like were taken out. But things didn't work out the way the government thought it would (never does), and they realized that they must fix what they did wrong. They put several genetically damaged people in several different cities and waited for the damaged genes to be bred out, and for a new generation of pure genes to begin. These pure genes are the Divergent. [End spoiler] Unlike a lot of reviewers who gave Allegiant a negative review, I do believe that the Author had this plot twist planned from the beginning. But the problem is it's just a bad plot twist. The Divergent really aren't special after all? And then it turns out that a person can display Divergent traits, but not actually be Divergent? That makes a lot of sense. The story then spirals into an even worse bog. Apparently the GD (genetically damaged) aren't treated as well as they should be, and the GP (genetically pure) are the upper class of society. So the GD want to start a revolution, and they pull Tobias into it. What ensues is pretty much a repeat of Insurgent's storyline, only with fewer meetings in the cafeteria. I wasn't emotionally invested in the GDs cause because I quite frankly didn't like any of the rebel leaders. Meanwhile, another rebellion is stirring in the city, led by a group called the Allegiant (who, by the way, are not as important to the plot as you would think, given the fact that the book is named after them). But we don't want to side with them any more than we want to side with the rebels from Insurgent who now control the city. In the end, there are no sides to pick, the rebellions are all pointless, and the Reader wonders why, in the name of all things good and holy, they ever suffered through the other two books, let alone this 526-page monstrosity. The plot meanders, and nothing happens. For a book about three different rebellions, one would think that there would be a heck of a lot more going on. Not so.
Believability: Not applicable.
Writing Style: First person, present tense. Each chapter alternates between Tobias and Tris' narratives. All I can say about the writing style is: thank God each chapter told me who was narrating, because there is absolutely no distinction between Tris and Tobias' narration voice. They sounded the exact same. Sometimes I found myself forgetting which of them was narrating!
Content: None, other than lots of smooching and feeling under one another's shirt. Roll eyes. Oh yes, and there is a gay character, who's thrown in for no apparent reason. He's just gay because that's the fad now.
Conclusion: This is another area where I disagree with my fellow reviewers. Many say that they think the Author wrote herself into a corner and wanted to end the trilogy on a shock factor; she wanted to be original. It's possible that that is what she wanted, but I do believe that she had it planned from the beginning. It just had that feeling of pre-planned about it. That said, I also thought it was silly. It wasn't emotional for me because I wasn't attached to Tris, and it was just poorly executed. [Spoiler] She's survived all these things and then she just gets shot? Just like that? Really? [End spoiler] Divergent was interesting; Tris surprised me and I rather enjoyed the concept. Insurgent was boring, every character decided to have an emotional breakdown, well over half of it took place in one cafeteria or another, but the ending made me want to find out what happened next. Allegiant was just an utter fail. The revelations were silly, the ending was poorly done, I didn't care about anyone, and I just couldn't wait for it to end.
Recommended Audience: Quite honestly, I would have difficulty recommending this to anyone. While some fans might love it, I think the majority of them out there will be disappointed, if not heartbroken.
Others in This Trilogy:
1)Divergent
2)Insurgent
3)Allegiant
This book. Allegiant by Veronica Roth, was waited upon for a long time. Many expectations were built. And let me tell you, they were fulfilled. Roth has put a tragic ending. Accepted, every one knew it was going to happen. At least I did. Yes. I did cry. The book was emotional. It crushes all your feels. But it is worth the wait. And all the haters out there- GET A LIFE. Well yeah. The book is awesome. It was a thrilling conclusion. And it did meet the standards of Divergent and Insurgent.
ReplyDeleteNeha, I don't know what exactly you're expectations were for this trilogy, but I'm glad they were fulfilled for you! I personally didn't have any expectations beyond a good action story. By the time ALLEGIANT rolled around, I simply didn't care about anyone in the book anymore. What disappointed me about the ending was it just didn't feel necessary. I do believe the Author planned it from the beginning, but it was poorly executed and came across as anticlimactic in the end. Neither INSURGENT nor ALLEGIANT met the standards I had come to expect in DIVERGENT. And since I am going around on other peoples' blogs and shouting at them, like you, I think that it is in fact the fans of this trilogy who need to get a life, not I. I have expressed my opinion on this book in my corner of the internet, and people are free to agree or disagree.
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