Allegiant (Divergent Series, 3)
The explosive conclusion to Veronica Roth's #1 New York Times bestselling Divergent series of books reveals the secrets of the dystopian world that captivated millions of readers and film fans in Divergent and Insurgent. This paperback edition includes bonus content by Veronica Roth!
One choice will define you. What if your whole world was a lie? What if a single revelation--like a single choice--changed everything? What if love and loyalty made you do things you never expected?
Told from a riveting dual perspective, this third installment in the series follows Tris and Tobias as they battle to comprehend the complexities of human nature--and their selves--while facing impossible choices of courage, allegiance, sacrifice, and love.
And don't miss The Fates Divide, Veronica Roth's powerful sequel to the bestselling Carve the Mark!
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Community Reviews
Woohoo! I finished the series! Now I can say I've read it and I can repress it firmly into the nebulous regions of my psyche where horrible things go to die.
Because this book was awful. Just plain awful. I mean, the first two books were awful, too, but I thought maybe the big resolution would, perhaps, lift it from the swampy muck of mediocrity? Nooope. Too much to hope for.
The other thing that really makes me upset is that sometimes I love awful books. For example, I'm reading Pretty Little Liars right now. Boy is it bad. But it is at least entertaining me (perhaps, however, because I am such an avid PLL show watcher -- don't judge, everyone needs a guilty pleasure). Allegiant didn't even keep me interested. I was just begging for release. I read the last 250 pages in about an hour and half, whirring through it at top speed because I was so ready to just be done with the whole mess.
And what a mess it was. How about, since so many other people have so eloquently outlined the massive amount of things poorly executed in this book, I just make a list of my least favorite things with a couple explanatory comments? Awesome. P.S., spoilers. I just don't know how to do that cool spoilers thing where it hides it, so readers beware from this point on. Oh, and language. Okay, list.
1.) Really? No one ever thought to wonder what was outside their city? No one could see anything from all these trips to the tops of skyscrapers? Because it sure as hell doesn't seem like these new compounds are far enough away that they wouldn't be visible from, oh, I don't know, the top of a 100-storey building.
2.) I really don't feel like pride, selfishness, anger, etc. is genetic. I really truly believe that is shitty parenting and, later, shitty self-control. Therefore, I don't believe in your entire story premise, Veronica Roth, and I recommend you take Biology 101 and Psychology 101 to more clearly define the boundaries between nature and nurture. This really does buy into this idea that seems to have permeated our society of taking away personal responsibility. It's not me, it's my genetics! I can't help the way I am! Or the way too many man children I know who are complete assholes blame it on "autism". You are not autistic. You are a self-centered asshole. And how dare you appropriate a legitimate problem to continue your lack of personal responsibility and assholery?
3.) So if Tris doesn't think Tobias is "genetically damaged" around pg. 150, why does it take her until pg. 400 to realize that everyone else who is "genetically damaged" probably isn't? It's this big epiphany but the only reason I can see for it is Tris's blatant stupidity.
4.) Going along with that, perhaps it's not stupidity so much as tunnel vision. Like, it's totally, totally morally wrong and evil to use a memory serum on our loved ones and our city (even though it would be to prevent violence and death), but it's completely okay to do so to people we don't really know (because it would be to prevent violence and death). I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning.
5.) Yet another example of tunnel vision: David was into my mom?????? Um, yeah, it was OBVIOUS from the first interaction they had, you twit!
6.) More hypocrisy. I'm acting like a petulant child, but stop treating me like one! I'm looking at you, Tobias.
7.) So, part of the city was utterly devastated by a previous rebellion that they then never bothered to clean up because, apparently, that was then where the factionless lived, and to end the rebellion they did the convenient memory-wiping thing. BUT WHY DID TRIS NEVER THINK ABOUT THIS? She was like, "hmm, this part of the city is destroyed. . .this must be why the factionless can't have nice things; they just ruin what they have!" Let's not think critically, here. It might blow those holes in your plot wide open.
8.) Nita tried to get into this heavily guarded Weapons Lab but she failed and is facing prison in life and the deaths/injuries of many. Let's do THE EXACT SAME THING but we'll ask her what she did wrong, so that we can waltz in, easy as pie, and do it right! Tra-la-la! *insert painfully large eyeroll*
9.) I can't help but contrast Tris with Hermoine, who willfully erases her parents' memories so that they will be safe from Voldemort. Sometimes, memory wiping can be used for good, yo. Tris just won't do it unless it's HER version of good.
10.) Really, Veronica Roth? You're going to kill off your main character? Obviously, you had to make a big impact, because the other deaths in the book just didn't cut it (seriously, they didn't. I don't give a shit about any of the people killed because you didn't actually develop their characters. It seemed stiff and stilted and done because you felt that was what edgy authors did, a la George R. R. Martin. Spoiler alert: he's a good writer.) But I didn't give a shit about your main character, either. Her death was unnecessary and poorly handled. And I'm okay with killing off a main character! As Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf so famously said in The Hours, someone must die so that everyone else can value life more. But we don't get a sense that Tobias is valuing life more, or anyone else is, either, for that matter. Because Tris was absolutely perfect and flawless in this last book, so her sacrifice has turned her into the ultimate martyr saint. Tobias can never move on with another woman because Tris was so completely perfect and therefore never live his life fully. And you know what? Her death really didn't do much good. So she wiped the memory of one group of government officials. I bet they aren't even the main group of government officials. And things changed in Chicago a little (but probably would have done the same thing within a generation or so). So, really, if they had been more patient and a little less inclined to anarchy, they could have gotten the same results with much less blood and guts. But seriously, guys, Tris's death meant nothing to me. There have been so many times I have sobbed and cried over the death of a character, in Bridge to Terabithia, in Harry Potter, hell, I even cried over A COCKROACH in Gregor the Overlander. Yes, A COCKROACH is higher on my totem pole of characters I care about than Tris. AND SHE WAS THE MAIN CHARACTER OF THE ENTIRE SERIES. The cockroach wasn't even a main character! But the sacrifice was better and more real and selfless and honest. And without the sacrifice, truly disastrous things would have happened.
Sigh.
So, I think it's safe to say I won't be recommending this book to anyone unless they want to learn what NOT to do in a dystopian teen series (or any book, for that matter), and I will be personally using the lessons I have learned here to attempt to avoid these mistakes for my own book. So, thanks for that, Veronica Roth? All in all, however, I consider your series a pathetic attempt to tap into what is hip and trendy and I feel that your series has no real, lasting literary power and will quickly fall into the void of oblivion, despite the fact that it's being made into movies. Probably four movies. Because why torture us with three when you can get a bigger profit out of torture with four?
Sigh. Until the next horrible teen series I inevitably read because I love picking apart poorly written novels. . .adieu.
And seriously consider reading Gregor the Overlander.
Because this book was awful. Just plain awful. I mean, the first two books were awful, too, but I thought maybe the big resolution would, perhaps, lift it from the swampy muck of mediocrity? Nooope. Too much to hope for.
The other thing that really makes me upset is that sometimes I love awful books. For example, I'm reading Pretty Little Liars right now. Boy is it bad. But it is at least entertaining me (perhaps, however, because I am such an avid PLL show watcher -- don't judge, everyone needs a guilty pleasure). Allegiant didn't even keep me interested. I was just begging for release. I read the last 250 pages in about an hour and half, whirring through it at top speed because I was so ready to just be done with the whole mess.
And what a mess it was. How about, since so many other people have so eloquently outlined the massive amount of things poorly executed in this book, I just make a list of my least favorite things with a couple explanatory comments? Awesome. P.S., spoilers. I just don't know how to do that cool spoilers thing where it hides it, so readers beware from this point on. Oh, and language. Okay, list.
1.) Really? No one ever thought to wonder what was outside their city? No one could see anything from all these trips to the tops of skyscrapers? Because it sure as hell doesn't seem like these new compounds are far enough away that they wouldn't be visible from, oh, I don't know, the top of a 100-storey building.
2.) I really don't feel like pride, selfishness, anger, etc. is genetic. I really truly believe that is shitty parenting and, later, shitty self-control. Therefore, I don't believe in your entire story premise, Veronica Roth, and I recommend you take Biology 101 and Psychology 101 to more clearly define the boundaries between nature and nurture. This really does buy into this idea that seems to have permeated our society of taking away personal responsibility. It's not me, it's my genetics! I can't help the way I am! Or the way too many man children I know who are complete assholes blame it on "autism". You are not autistic. You are a self-centered asshole. And how dare you appropriate a legitimate problem to continue your lack of personal responsibility and assholery?
3.) So if Tris doesn't think Tobias is "genetically damaged" around pg. 150, why does it take her until pg. 400 to realize that everyone else who is "genetically damaged" probably isn't? It's this big epiphany but the only reason I can see for it is Tris's blatant stupidity.
4.) Going along with that, perhaps it's not stupidity so much as tunnel vision. Like, it's totally, totally morally wrong and evil to use a memory serum on our loved ones and our city (even though it would be to prevent violence and death), but it's completely okay to do so to people we don't really know (because it would be to prevent violence and death). I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning.
5.) Yet another example of tunnel vision: David was into my mom?????? Um, yeah, it was OBVIOUS from the first interaction they had, you twit!
6.) More hypocrisy. I'm acting like a petulant child, but stop treating me like one! I'm looking at you, Tobias.
7.) So, part of the city was utterly devastated by a previous rebellion that they then never bothered to clean up because, apparently, that was then where the factionless lived, and to end the rebellion they did the convenient memory-wiping thing. BUT WHY DID TRIS NEVER THINK ABOUT THIS? She was like, "hmm, this part of the city is destroyed. . .this must be why the factionless can't have nice things; they just ruin what they have!" Let's not think critically, here. It might blow those holes in your plot wide open.
8.) Nita tried to get into this heavily guarded Weapons Lab but she failed and is facing prison in life and the deaths/injuries of many. Let's do THE EXACT SAME THING but we'll ask her what she did wrong, so that we can waltz in, easy as pie, and do it right! Tra-la-la! *insert painfully large eyeroll*
9.) I can't help but contrast Tris with Hermoine, who willfully erases her parents' memories so that they will be safe from Voldemort. Sometimes, memory wiping can be used for good, yo. Tris just won't do it unless it's HER version of good.
10.) Really, Veronica Roth? You're going to kill off your main character? Obviously, you had to make a big impact, because the other deaths in the book just didn't cut it (seriously, they didn't. I don't give a shit about any of the people killed because you didn't actually develop their characters. It seemed stiff and stilted and done because you felt that was what edgy authors did, a la George R. R. Martin. Spoiler alert: he's a good writer.) But I didn't give a shit about your main character, either. Her death was unnecessary and poorly handled. And I'm okay with killing off a main character! As Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf so famously said in The Hours, someone must die so that everyone else can value life more. But we don't get a sense that Tobias is valuing life more, or anyone else is, either, for that matter. Because Tris was absolutely perfect and flawless in this last book, so her sacrifice has turned her into the ultimate martyr saint. Tobias can never move on with another woman because Tris was so completely perfect and therefore never live his life fully. And you know what? Her death really didn't do much good. So she wiped the memory of one group of government officials. I bet they aren't even the main group of government officials. And things changed in Chicago a little (but probably would have done the same thing within a generation or so). So, really, if they had been more patient and a little less inclined to anarchy, they could have gotten the same results with much less blood and guts. But seriously, guys, Tris's death meant nothing to me. There have been so many times I have sobbed and cried over the death of a character, in Bridge to Terabithia, in Harry Potter, hell, I even cried over A COCKROACH in Gregor the Overlander. Yes, A COCKROACH is higher on my totem pole of characters I care about than Tris. AND SHE WAS THE MAIN CHARACTER OF THE ENTIRE SERIES. The cockroach wasn't even a main character! But the sacrifice was better and more real and selfless and honest. And without the sacrifice, truly disastrous things would have happened.
Sigh.
So, I think it's safe to say I won't be recommending this book to anyone unless they want to learn what NOT to do in a dystopian teen series (or any book, for that matter), and I will be personally using the lessons I have learned here to attempt to avoid these mistakes for my own book. So, thanks for that, Veronica Roth? All in all, however, I consider your series a pathetic attempt to tap into what is hip and trendy and I feel that your series has no real, lasting literary power and will quickly fall into the void of oblivion, despite the fact that it's being made into movies. Probably four movies. Because why torture us with three when you can get a bigger profit out of torture with four?
Sigh. Until the next horrible teen series I inevitably read because I love picking apart poorly written novels. . .adieu.
And seriously consider reading Gregor the Overlander.
Very upset at the ending. I don’t even know what to say and idk why but it was hard for me to know what was going on or how to imagine the background/setting of where they were at.
Didn't love this as much as the first two. Yes it ties everything together in the end decently but did Tris really have to die? For her to be the hero after saying so long how she didn't want to die and her and Tobias had just gotten back to where they were seeming solid again. Just seems like a waste. It was a good book, I suppose, I just enjoyed the first two much more.
I think maybe I had already lost interest in the series before I even started this book. But sometimes the third book in a series makes you fall in love all over again by tying things up in a fun and interesting way. Not so with this one. It was pretty boring. To the extent that I even became interested in some of the characters earlier in the series, this offered us little insight into them. Even the new setting in the third book didn't breathe any life into the story. I gave it an extra star because it gave a final resolution to the whole story, which I appreciate.
I didn't mind this book at all but it really wasn't as good as divergent. The action and the feelings and the relationships were so clear and well defined in the first book and her ideas were sooo great that I think almost any continuance of them wouldn't quite live up to expectations. The second book was good but slow going at times. This book was really slow and was too much about the genetics. I loved how it made us understand the experiment and why it is in place but after finding out did we really need all the politics? I'm not a fan of that type of direction in books so personally I wasn't as thrilled. The ending wasn't too shocking to me I have to say I did see it coming, actually I thought more characters would have been included in the "surprise."
My main dislike was everything with four and Tris. They got into arguments and at times I thought for sure Nita, Cara, or even Matthew would be added into a love triangle but nope just a tiny argument. I liked them as a couple in the first book but honestly I didn't like them together after that.
All of this is of course my own personal opinion. Overall it seemed like this was never really planned and she wanted simply to I've her fans an ending because they wanted one. Divergent still is one of my all time fav books for now (who says you have to love the whole series!?) and i do appreciate the continuation of the series. Thanks for writing an interesting series and for the fav book!!
My main dislike was everything with four and Tris. They got into arguments and at times I thought for sure Nita, Cara, or even Matthew would be added into a love triangle but nope just a tiny argument. I liked them as a couple in the first book but honestly I didn't like them together after that.
All of this is of course my own personal opinion. Overall it seemed like this was never really planned and she wanted simply to I've her fans an ending because they wanted one. Divergent still is one of my all time fav books for now (who says you have to love the whole series!?) and i do appreciate the continuation of the series. Thanks for writing an interesting series and for the fav book!!
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