One choice can--and will-- change everything. In the conclusion of the Divergent series, the place that Tris, Tobias, and the rest of their people have called home for decades is now keeping them prisoner, locked away from the outside world that the Divergent are apparently supposed to save. Kept from the truth for so long, Tris and her friends are determined to discover what is really out there, and what their purpose is. But the truth is bigger than they realize, and they must decide what they are going to do with the dangerous and life changing information given to them. With pain, loss, heartbreak, and sacrifice clogging their past and present, who will they trust and what truth will they believe to help them journey into their future?
Allegiant possesses many positive qualities that are very similar to the previous two books: tension between people groups that have differing views of how their city should operate, relationship issues and improvements between Tris and Tobias, and personnel journeys that each character goes through just to name a few. The growth of the characters are wonderful, and Roth does a great job of not making "perfect" characters, but ones that have flaws and issues and must discover what they are and how to work through them.
Although this book has these good aspects, there are many problems with the story. Roth changes the focus of the story, redirecting it to a place beyond the ruined city of the factions. She incorporates an entirely new plot that not only causes the book to turn away from the city that is supposed to be the main focus, but also seriously complicates the plot with a government that also has some big issues. By adding another broken government, it completely takes away the goal of the entire book series, and that is to heal the city.
By including another government, this also adds to another problem this book has and that is all the unanswered questions: who rules the government? What shape is the country in? Why is Tris the only Divergent to ever have been tested and have three factions? Does her brother Caleb ever get why it was wrong to help the woman who tried to kill his sister, or is he still completely oblivious?
Probably the biggest issue with Allegiant is the ending. Allegiant does something that the other books do not do, and that is have both Tris and Tobias' point of views. The inclusion of Tobias is great at first, but by the end the true reason of its presence is realized, and it is not what readers are expecting. The general response for the ending is going to be split among the readers; part of the readers will become extremely angry over what happens, and the other part will be happy that Roth ended differently than other mainstream books and praise its uniqueness. The last part of the book is going to be controversial among fans, and since the movie company for the series, Red Wagon Entertainment, is already slotted to film Insurgent, the second book in the series, it will be interesting to see how it will play out.
Though parts of the book were entertaining, attention grabbing, and thought provoking, the crowded and complicated plot, the unanswered questions, and the questionable ending, causes Allegiant to fall short of a climatic finale to the series.
Sincerely,
The Night Owl
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