Allegiant by Veronica Roth

Cover via Goodreads.

Rating: 3/5 stars.

After finishing Lauren Oliver’s Requiem and Marie Lu’s Champion, Allegiant marks the third final installment I’ve read in terms of YA trilogies as of late. While none of them inspired me as much as Suzanne Collin’s Mockingjay, each showed the writer’s growth and the development of his or her characters – though with Allegiant, I was left disappointed, more than I was with the others.

As many other reviewers have stated in passionate terms, the plot of Allegiant was its main pitfall. Books do not have to progress with punch after punch of action to succeed, but authors should include elements to keep their expositions interesting; the first 200-300 pages of Allegiant felt like info dump after info dump. Introducing the idea of the genetically pure oppressing the genetically damaged did not help either. Roth allocated a large amount of the book on how people should not be suppressed or thought of as lesser than when she still had room for developing the themes associated with the factions and the factionless. She threw in so much that nothing really felt resolved or fully fleshed out – the messages made clear were shallow and unimpressive overall.

Aside from the plethora of plot holes, the conflict within Tobias and Tris’s relationship felt contrived. They fought over miniscule details and made up in ways that lacked clear logic or reason. While I will not include too much to avoid spoilers, let’s just say allowing someone to verbally abuse you and justifying it internally without the other individual showing true remorse leaves something to be desired.

Not all of Allegiant left a sour taste in my mouth. Tris and Caleb’s relationship intrigued me and came across as sincere for most of the book. The ending pleasantly surprised me because it revealed Roth’s willingness to make a tough choice and it showed her desire to extend her characters’ development beyond just a surface growth. Allegiant‘s ending may leave you drowning in tears or shaking your fist in frustration, but if you have any emotional attachment to the series, you will feel something.

I’m not sure why I’m giving Allegiant three stars when it may deserve less – perhaps I’m feeling sentimental about the series coming to a close. It was an okay book but I would only recommend it to hardcore fans of Divergent and Insurgent, even though it may not please those who enjoyed the first two books either. Here’s to anticipating what Veronica Roth will write next!

You can also check out my reviews of A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf, Champion by Marie Lu, and When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney here, here, and here respectively.