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.