Allegiant by Veronica Roth

526 pages

"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." -Dust Jacket

An Amazon review spoiled the ending for me as soon as this book came out and so I haven't wanted to read it until now. It was definitely worth it. I love books that take you on a gut-wrenching journey and leave you with deep things to think about.



{SPOILER ALERT. Do not keep reading if you don't want pretty much the entire book spoiled.}


The thing that I read on the Amazon review was how upset the person was that Tris died. I think that is what caused the low-star reviews from so many people, but now, having read the book, I think those reviews were a bit unfair. All of us like a happy ending, and when we don't get one we often decide to hate the whole book/series instead of looking at whether or not it was necessary. I was that way when I first read Mockingjay but after reading the series again I felt like it was the only way for it to end. Life doesn't always give you a happily ever after. I think it's one of those things where the author had way more time to think through the story and we, the readers, have an instant gut reaction to it.

When Insurgent ended, I was wary of what would happen in the third book. You find out that the world Tris has lived in is not the "real" world, but an experiment and that now that they know that the Divergents are supposed to go and help it. I wasn't sure what Tris going into the real world would bring and how it would change her. I wasn't sure what time period we would be in, but it's still a dystopian novel and still set hundreds of years in the future. I think that having them go out into a world that is just as broken as the one they'd always known really forced the characters to decide even more who they are and want to be.

I think this series really does boil down to the choices we make and why we make them. In the very beginning, Tris has to decide what faction she wants to join. Does she want to stay in Abnegation, whose virtue is selflessness? Or does she want to join the Dauntless and be brave? I think the author does a beautiful job in the end of showing us that she is both. Even though her brother has betrayed her time and time again, she sacrifices herself for him. Tobias had told her that Abnegation only encourages letting someone die if they are doing it out of love. When Tris asks Caleb why he's willing to die for her to release the memory serum, he tells her it's because he wants her to forgive him. She realizes that it's not the same thing and that she can't let him die for that reason. Yes, it's heartbreaking--I sobbed to the point where I almost couldn't keep reading--but it's courageous and selfless, the ultimate sacrifice.

This book would not have had the same impact had it only been written from Tris's POV like the first two. We would have been deprived the opportunity to see the journey Four (I still love that name more than Tobias) goes on as well and the battle that rages within him, and the complete and total heartbreak and despair he feels when Tris dies. When he discovers that he's "genetically damaged" it makes him make decisions that have serious consequences. It's Tris's love that makes him see that he's still the same person and a good person. I like that he and Tris have the blowup where he tells her that she needs to respect his ability to make his own decisions even when he makes terrible ones. They decide to stay together because they want to, because they are good together. I liked the analogy of Tris comparing herself to a sword and Four being the whetting stone that she continues to throw herself against.

I still love Four the most. I love that there was no love triangle in this series. I love that Four & Tris have a real relationship, with conflicts and challenges. I love that they find their way back to each other before the end so that you feel like they didn't leave anything unsaid or undone before the heartache. I love that Christina develops into such a good friend and saves Four from taking the memory serum to erase all of his painful memories, instead telling him that Tris would hate him for taking it. You get the feeling that he will become the strong person Tris always knew he was and that her memory will guide him. There's still that part of me that wishes they could have lived happily ever after, but like Four says towards the end, "I suppose a fire that burns that bright is not meant to last."

Here's what the author had to say about the ending.