Allegiant picks up pretty much where Insurgent left off. The world has changed after the revelations of Edith Prior's video. The factions are now gone, Evelyn is now in charge and everyone has to answer for what they did during the uprising. Back are all the familiar characters and it really does begin well enough. But unfortunately it very quickly falls apart. There are so many plot holes, inconsistencies and WTF moments in this book, it was almost painful to read. I had to force myself to continue reading even though many times I wanted to slam the book closed in disgust. At one point it nearly went out the window into the snow below. Only the fact that it was a library book kept me from wreaking utter destruction on the book.
MASSIVE SPOILERS BELOW DO NOT CONTINUE IF YOU DO NOT WANT THIS BOOK SPOILED FOR YOU.
DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU!!!
I will start by saying I am not the target audience for this book and that may have colored my viewpoints a bit. I know that the series is aimed at a younger audience, I know that the vast majority of the characters are teenagers and very young adults. But that doesn't mean that a wider audience can't enjoy a good story. And that's what happened when I first read Divergent. I picked it up and had it finished in a day. I sacrificed sleep for the book and I only do that when it's something REALLY good. I like my sleep. So when a book can keep me up in the wee hours of the morning, the author is definitely onto something. It was similar with Insurgent. I didn't enjoy it quite as much, but it was still good enough to keep me up well past my bed-time reading about Tris, Four and the world around them. So I was incredibly excited when Allegiant was released. I'm cheap, so I was on the VERY LONG waiting list at my local library. Sadly, it wasn't worth the wait.
The story was told in dual viewpoints from the point of view of Tris and Four (Tobias). The biggest complaint I have about this style is the fact that after awhile, you simply could not tell them apart. I had to go back several times to the beginning of the chapter just to make sure who was talking. They turned into the same insecure, whining, indecisive person. That was my first real WTF moment. How do you take two incredibly strong characters and dull them to the point where you can't tell them apart?
The factions are deemed illegal now that Evelyn is in charge. Everyone is now factionless and everyone gets to learn new jobs. Ok. That's going to work, right? No. Not only do you have to be factionless, if you're not following her rules, you're going to get your ass kicked by her new police force. So don't walk down the street decked out in nothing but Erudite blue or you're going to be pulled aside and asked questions and then probably get your face bashed in until some one comes to your rescue and gives you a black hoodie so that you blend in. So of course this leads to another uprising, this time by the Allegiant. They want to return to the factions. They want to go back to the way things were before, except without all the hunting and killing of the Divergent.
For some reason, that plot goes NOWHERE. Right after you find out about the Allegiant and what they want to do she switches to something completely different. Tobias breaks Caleb out of jail where he's been waiting execution. They meet up with Tris and a few others and have decided to go outside the fence. They race toward the fence, get shot at, someone dies, but they make it to the other side. Where they are introduced to the Bureau and taken in as almost honored guests.
You quickly learn that the city Tris hails from is an experiment in genetics. Generations ago the government decided that in order to build a more perfect society, they would take away all the genes that caused bad things like selfishness, laziness, stupidity, brutality, etc. Of course this experiment in genetics goes horribly wrong and leads to a war where those who are considered genetically pure are pitted against those who were genetically damaged...you know, the ones that the government screwed up to try and make Utopia. After the war, instead of trying to use the same genetic engineering to reverse what they screwed up, they decide to put the Genetically Damaged people into closed cities and slowly introduce Genetically Pure individuals into the mix to eventually weed out the bad genes and then after about half a dozen generations or so, the offspring would be Genetically Pure!
So now you have the Genetically Damaged versus the Genetically Pure. So now Tris and Tobias find themselves involved in the conflict between those in the Bureau that think the experiments that went on in their city are wrong and that there is nothing wrong with any of them regardless of their genes and the people who are in charge and believe that only the Genetically Pure should be allowed to be in charge. Sound familiar?
Suddenly you're back in the conflict between Evelyn and the Allegiant. They're going to end up going to war and it threatens to destroy the experiment that the Bureau worked so hard to keep together. So now the Bureau wants to use the Abnegation memory serum to wipe everyone's memory so that they will stop fighting each other. But Tris doesn't think that's right and thinks that they should use the serum to wipe the memories of the Bureau so that the damaged and the pure can live in peace and build a brave new world. Of course there is the obligatory wondering if it's morally right to do so.
People die. Tobias goes to the city to use the memory serum on one of his screwed up parents but suddenly has a change of heart and tells his mother (Evelyn) that if she can give up the fight, he'll come back home and be her son again. And after abandoning him and nearly killing everyone he loves and turning into a tyrant, she suddenly has a change of heart and wants to become the World's Best Mom. So they have a peace treaty with the Allegiant. Yay.
Meanwhile, back at the Bureau, Caleb is going to go in and atone for being a selfish prick by breaking in and stealing the memory serum so that it can be used against the leaders of the Bureau. Everyone who matters has already been inoculated against it. You figure that Caleb is finally going to do something right for a change...but no. Tris steps in and takes her brother's place and sacrifices herself for the greater good. That's right, Veronica Roth KILLS THE MAIN CHARACTER!!! WTF?! It made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. None. Zero. Zip. We already knew Tris was willing to lay down her life for the greater good. Hello!?! Why would you have to sacrifice Tris to prove this? What did it prove? I mean seriously, the book didn't suddenly get better because you decided to kill off the main character. It got WORSE.
It was already agonizing to watch Tobias go from an incredibly strong character into a self loathing, self doubting, fearful little brat. Now we have to watch him agonizingly go through grief over Tris' death? Yes, this was the point that the book nearly took a flying leap off the balcony.
I really wish I had read the spoilers and just stayed away from Allegiant. I'm so disappointed in how the series ended that it nearly spoiled the good books for me. Sigh. I hate it when that happens. I think next time I'll just read the spoilers.
You quickly learn that the city Tris hails from is an experiment in genetics. Generations ago the government decided that in order to build a more perfect society, they would take away all the genes that caused bad things like selfishness, laziness, stupidity, brutality, etc. Of course this experiment in genetics goes horribly wrong and leads to a war where those who are considered genetically pure are pitted against those who were genetically damaged...you know, the ones that the government screwed up to try and make Utopia. After the war, instead of trying to use the same genetic engineering to reverse what they screwed up, they decide to put the Genetically Damaged people into closed cities and slowly introduce Genetically Pure individuals into the mix to eventually weed out the bad genes and then after about half a dozen generations or so, the offspring would be Genetically Pure!
So now you have the Genetically Damaged versus the Genetically Pure. So now Tris and Tobias find themselves involved in the conflict between those in the Bureau that think the experiments that went on in their city are wrong and that there is nothing wrong with any of them regardless of their genes and the people who are in charge and believe that only the Genetically Pure should be allowed to be in charge. Sound familiar?
Suddenly you're back in the conflict between Evelyn and the Allegiant. They're going to end up going to war and it threatens to destroy the experiment that the Bureau worked so hard to keep together. So now the Bureau wants to use the Abnegation memory serum to wipe everyone's memory so that they will stop fighting each other. But Tris doesn't think that's right and thinks that they should use the serum to wipe the memories of the Bureau so that the damaged and the pure can live in peace and build a brave new world. Of course there is the obligatory wondering if it's morally right to do so.
People die. Tobias goes to the city to use the memory serum on one of his screwed up parents but suddenly has a change of heart and tells his mother (Evelyn) that if she can give up the fight, he'll come back home and be her son again. And after abandoning him and nearly killing everyone he loves and turning into a tyrant, she suddenly has a change of heart and wants to become the World's Best Mom. So they have a peace treaty with the Allegiant. Yay.
Meanwhile, back at the Bureau, Caleb is going to go in and atone for being a selfish prick by breaking in and stealing the memory serum so that it can be used against the leaders of the Bureau. Everyone who matters has already been inoculated against it. You figure that Caleb is finally going to do something right for a change...but no. Tris steps in and takes her brother's place and sacrifices herself for the greater good. That's right, Veronica Roth KILLS THE MAIN CHARACTER!!! WTF?! It made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. None. Zero. Zip. We already knew Tris was willing to lay down her life for the greater good. Hello!?! Why would you have to sacrifice Tris to prove this? What did it prove? I mean seriously, the book didn't suddenly get better because you decided to kill off the main character. It got WORSE.
It was already agonizing to watch Tobias go from an incredibly strong character into a self loathing, self doubting, fearful little brat. Now we have to watch him agonizingly go through grief over Tris' death? Yes, this was the point that the book nearly took a flying leap off the balcony.
I really wish I had read the spoilers and just stayed away from Allegiant. I'm so disappointed in how the series ended that it nearly spoiled the good books for me. Sigh. I hate it when that happens. I think next time I'll just read the spoilers.
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