Allegiant
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?
The faction-based society that Tris Prior once believed in is shattered – fractured by violence and power struggles and scarred by loss and betrayal. So when offered a chance to explore the world past the limits she’s known, Tris is ready. Perhaps beyond the fence, she and Tobias will find a simple new life together, free from complicated lies, tangled loyalties, and painful memories.
But Tris’s new reality is even more alarming than the one she left behind. Old discoveries are quickly rendered meaningless. Explosive new truths change the hearts of those she loves. And once again, Tris must battle to comprehend the complexities of human nature – and of herself – while facing impossible choices about courage, allegiance, sacrifice and love.
Warning contains spoilers for Divergent and Insurgent
I was soooo excited to get my hands on a copy of Allegiant to review, I had read the previous two books and, like many others, was waiting for this to come out. I devoured this in about three days, which with two young children at home is probably the fastest I have read anything recently! And is testament to the fact that I only put it down with great reluctance!
The action begins exactly from where we left it as Tris has survived and shown everyone the video that reveals startling information about the history of their city and way of life. As their world is falling part around them Tris, Tobias and their friends try to figure out what to believe, who to trust and what to do next. The faction system has fallen apart but there are those who want to return to it, others are glad to see the back of it, but the most pressing question is what is outside the fence that meant their city was constructed in the first place.
Although the continuing story of what is happening inside the city is interesting it is the story of what is outside that is predominantly the focus of this tale. As you would expect Tris and Tobias, with a few other notable characters are the first to get out and find out what is going on. What is revealed is certainly not what I expected, although I have to admit that I am not to sure what that would have been anyway!
Without wanting to totally give away the twists and turns of the plot they find a society dividing genetics into people who are deemed ok and those who are not. Chicago has been part of an experiment to fix genetically damaged people. Of course this raises hundreds of ethical questions and our characters have to come to terms with these new ideas quite quickly, and decide how they feel about the world outside and what has happened to them and their own universe.
The issues introduce plenty of friction and Tris and Tobias’ already strained relationship is put further to the test. This time the story is not solely told by Tris, Tobias gets to have his say too. At times I found the switching back and forth irritating as I would forget who was talking and have to go back and check, but on the whole I| liked hearing from both of them. It was interesting to see how Tobias sees Tris as opposed to her own views on herself! I did wonder though if this dual narrative is one of the reasons I felt the novel lacked the depth of the first two.
There is so much to find out about the outside and in the back story and I definitely still have questions that weren’t answered. Having had the first two books to get to know the characters and the faction system the same amount of time (or pages?) could easily have been given to the outside world. I would have enjoyed getting to know the characters there more and having a chance to get deeper into their situations and the whole motivation behind the project, as well as see them maybe learn a few lessons from the questioning of our main characters.
That said there is plenty to get your teeth to and the plot still has some twists and turns to keep you guessing as we would expect from Veronica. The ending is a little controversial, but for me it worked well and felt fitting to the overall story, as well as being quite refreshing, I think Veronica was brave to do this!
So despite feeling slightly unsatisfied that I didn’t get more of everything in this novel I still thoroughly enjoyed the ride and would still recommend it as a good rounding off to the trilogy.
Verdict: I only wish it could have been a quartet!
Reviewed by Helen
