I finished reading Allegiant by Veronica Roth. Allegiant is the third and final book in the Divergent trilogy. I knew from the bad reviews that I would likely be disappointed. The entire book was devoid of the magic of the first book. It was empty and actually quite boring for long stretches.
While I did not like the ending, I believe I would have reacted to it better if the book had been written well. The book was mostly boring. During the second book, we had a build up about what exactly was beyond the fence. We went beyond the fence in the third book, and you know what? It wasn't that interesting.
Roth described the setting in Chicago so well in the first book. Her descriptions were lacking in the third book. I couldn't visualize anything well. The area beyond the fence was a big "nothing."
The point of view alternates between Tris and Tobias, when the first two books were all Tris. This could have worked well, but Tobias and Tris were written exactly the same, creating confusion.
Many people said that they cried at the ending. I had no reaction whatsoever. I believe my lack of reaction was due to me never connecting with the book. The second book, Insurgent, set up readers for a thrilling reveal for when Tris journeys outside the fence. The outside of the fence is not much different from the inside of the fence, so I was a bit bored from the beginning of the book. I can think of at least one way that the journey outside the fence would have been made more interesting.
The book has a lot of gaping plot holes. When I thoroughly enjoy a book, I tend to ignore the plot holes. This book was not written well, and the plot holes were very obvious. The conflict involves people who are genetically pure and others who are genetically defective.
The book mentions multiple times how small their world is and how the Chicago area is but a tiny part of the entire country. Tris, Tobias, and the others have only been in Chicago, and they see maps of the United States. They feel like they are insignificant. Since the book emphasizes how small their world is, I have trouble understanding how solving the conflict in their small area solves the problem for the entire country. The government could send people in at any time to further its agenda.
When I read the reviews for the first book in the trilogy, Divergent, the critical reviews complained that the world makes no sense. I didn't have a problem with the world in the first book, because it is so magical and extraordinary. Guess what? Those people were right. The world makes no sense whatsoever, and Roth's attempts in explaining it in this book are woefully insufficient.
Going back to the genetically defective and genetically pure people, Roth uses abbreviations for both liberally throughout the text: "GD" and "GP." Each time I saw an abbreviation, I had to stop reading to look at the letters and figure out which was which. I really think using "defective" and "pure" would have been much easier on the reader. Besides, I kept wanting to read "GD" as a curse word which didn't help matters any.
If you are planning to read this book, do not read any reviews anywhere, because readers are so enraged about the ending that they are spoiling it in their reviews, often in the first sentence without warning. I saw one review on Amazon where the reviewer titled their review with the spoiler for the book's ending. Even reading the titles of reviews is dangerous.
I don't know whether people will find this blog post and make comments, but if you are planning to read this book, I caution you against reading any comments that are posted. Readers are so very upset that they are spoiling the book everywhere. I have decided that I will not remove any comments that get posted that spoil the ending, so you have been forewarned.
Lots of people have been spoiled on Facebook on Veronica Roth's page and everywhere else on the internet. People have posted on their Facebook accounts that they are reading the book, and others are so angry about the book that they respond with comments spoiling the ending. I've seen many people upset that the ending was spoiled for them.
I'm not sure when I've ever seen this much anger over a book that I have read. In my case, I am not angry or upset; I simply did not find the book to be a worthy conclusion to the Divergent trilogy.
2 comments:
Jennifer, in light of our conversations on the blog previously, I would like to know if you think this is a scary series--particularly for those who have not read this type of book.
I didn't find it particularly scary. It was very suspenseful and the content was a bit heavy. It has a lot of fighting. For instance, when Tris is in training, they fight with their hands and by kicking and they draw blood and get really bruised. Some of the characters are very cruel to others. There is a boy who is a terrible bully, and he maims another boy. So the has disturbing content.
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