MEGA SPOILERS AHEAD – Continue at your own peril!
I read Allegiant to complete the Divergent Trilogy. I was not a huge fan of either previous book but I wanted to know how the series would end. I enjoyed the dystopian plot but had no patience for the love angle. Books about teenagers in love are my bane. That secondary plot almost led to me not finishing the series. The finale reduced the kiddie-love aspect a little and I appreciated it.
Allegiant opens shortly after the end of Insurgent. Then, out of nowhere, we get a POV chapter from Four. I can see why this would make the book less appealing to many young (ie: immature) readers. We get to see the insecure side of Four for much of the book. He acts like a normal teenage boy, kudos to Ms. Roth for getting that right. Before this, Four was infallible because that is how Tris viewed him. Now, the perfect Four is very flawed and I suspect that is the cause of much of the complaining. I liked the inclusion of a new POV.
I also liked the way the author tried to bring genetics in to the storyline. I did not like the execution of the genetics storyline though. References about the different genetic make-ups were very superficial and not scientific in anyway. It could have easily been race or magic or hair color; the differences between groups of people could have been anything based on the context and genetics was a poor fit.
SUPER MEGA SPOILER AHEAD
I thought the ending was almost excellent. I LOVE it when an author has the fortitude to kill off a significant character in a violence-driven book. It feels genuine. Veronica Roth has balls of steel. She didn’t just kill a main character; she killed THE main character. I love that it happened but it didn’t really help make the story itself better. The addition of Four as a POV makes much more sense with Tris dead.
So, I loved a couple of things that happened in the book but still only gave it two stars because I just didn’t care about the story. This book should have been a very fast read but I couldn’t make myself pick it up to finish. I think that stems more from the previous books than this one. I felt that I could have given Allegiant either one or three stars. I didn’t like it the book as a whole but things happened that I really liked and respected. I settled on two because it isn’t bad but it’s not my cup of tea. I hope Veronica Roth’s next book continues her growth as a writer. I’d give it a chance.
I find your take on Four’s POV interesting. I had two main issues with his POV sections: the first was that I don’t think Roth actually gave him a strong enough voice that was distinct from Tris’. Outside of context cues, they read very similarly. My second issue was that giving him flaws and insecurities is one thing, but I actually think Roth kind of completely dismantles him here. His defining character aspect in the first two books was that he acknowledged and respected his fears and his weaknesses, but he didn’t allow himself to be controlled by them. In this book he becomes irrational and kind of co-dependent on Tris.
To be clear — I’m not actually criticizing the (hypothetical) Four here. That’s a flawed character and that’s fine. My issue with writing him this way in Allegiant is that it made his characterization erratic and not in a way that was suggestive of an arc or development; she just kind of adapted who he was as a person to make certain parts of the story fit better.
I concur with your assessment that Four was not distinct from Tris. I may even go back a little on my previous statement to agree that he was weakened as a character. I suppose I simply appreciate that Roth was bold enough to try to write a male POV after two books without. The blurring of Four and Tris definitely affected my overall take on the book. The Four POV was almost a deus ex machina that allowed Roth to end the story the way she intended. It felt like Tris was always going to die and Roth forced it with the POV.
I like your thoughts on this book.
I also loved that she killed off Tris. It was somehow unexpected and definitely brave, but looking back, if you read between the lines, it was foreshadowed numerous times.
There were a few other things that I didn’t like about Allegiant, but I definitely enjoyed the first book of the series. I do wish that the plotline at the end made more sense. Why wouldn’t these evil scientists start using the serums to control the general population? To “fix” the genetically impure? That made infinitely more sense to me than the final conflict did in the book, but maybe I’m missing something?
Great review – thanks!