Review: Allegiant by Veronica Roth

Ttile: Allegiant (Divergent #3)
Author: Veronica Roth
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release date: October 22nd 2013
Pages: 526
Genre: Young Adult dystopian
Source: Bought
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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.

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Divergent is one of my favorite series, and I was so excited to see how it would end! I was a little worried I wasn't going to love Allegiant as much as Divergent and Insurgent, though, because a lot of people seemed to be disappointed with the way Veronica Roth ended the series. I loved it, though, and Divergent continues to be one of my favorite series!

Instead of having only Tris's narration like in Divergent and Insurgent, Allegiant has dual POVs from Tris's and Four's perspectives. Even though I love Four, I wasn't to keen on that decision at first - partly because I'm always iffy about changing something like that within a series, and partly because to me, the two voices just sounded a little bit too similar. After a while, though, I got used to the dual narrative and started to enjoy getting Four's perspective on things, and I saw how this set-up makes sense with the structure of the story.

My favorite part of Allegiant was definitely the development of the characters - many of the characters we got to know in the first two books undergo a learning process and experience a lot of character growth in the last book of the series. The relationships develop in interesting and at least partly surprising ways, too; I especially enjoyed following the relationship between Tris and Caleb because I thought the brother/sister relationship didn't get enough spotlight in the first two books. Both Tris's and Four's development is interesting in relation to the factions and their values as well as the plot of Allegiant: there's no right or wrong, not even one bad guy, really, just lots of different and conflicting ideologies.

What fell short, though, in comparison to the character development, is the worldbuilding. I was really excited to see what had happened to the rest of the world, but sadly, we don't get that much information. I feel like there was just too much stuff that the characters don't find out about until this book, making Allegiant crammed with information and conflicts that I had a hard time distinguishing and focusing on. We don't get to see one issue be explored in any depth, and I'm still not entirely sure what the rest of the world looks like, because we are always only told and not shown about what the world has come to. To me, it might have been better to break with the trilogy format and split this up into two books so that we could explore this world's issues better, even though of course I know a lot of other factors play into decisions like that

I know a lot of people were upset about the ending, but I for one loved it. I can see why people are upset - and of course I was upset too; I was bawling for the last 50 pages. It's really unconventional, but I think this ending works really well with the development of the plot and the characters.

I can see where others' complaints about Allegiant are coming from because I'll admit that the ending is upsetting and the worldbuilding isn't as strong in this book as in the previous two. I still really enjoyed it, though, because the great character growth and emotions the story evoked in me made up for it. Allegiant is a solid conclusion to a thought-provoking, unique, and inspiring series!