Rachel Rambles About Allegiant

Allegiant by Veronica Roth
From Goodreads:
One choice will define you.

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.

Told from a riveting dual perspective, Allegiant, by #1 New York Times best-selling author Veronica Roth, brings the Divergent series to a powerful conclusion while revealing the secrets of the dystopian world that has captivated millions of readers in Divergent and Insurgent.

I'm going to have a small spoiler-free version and a large spoilery section of this ramble.

Spoiler-free version:
This book is amazing. I didn't expect anything else after reading Divergent and Insurgent, of course, but Allegiant still managed to impress me with how good it is. That said, there are some things I dislike about it, and because of that, it is my least favorite of the series. Insurgent is my favorite, then Divergent, then Allegiant. But I'm not disappointed by Allegiant at all. I'm more than satisfied with the ending, and I think this whole series is brilliant. If you enjoyed the first two books in the series, you MUST pick up Allegiant because it's a strong conclusion to a fantastic series.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You are now entering the spoilery section. If you have not read Allegiant yet, please do not read the following part of the ramble. Just stop reading now. I am going to put this picture of the cover right here as a buffer. Do not scroll past the cover buffer unless you have read the entire Divergent series. Thank you.

Also, there might be spoilers in the comments so I'd recommend avoiding them. :D

Okay, then. If you're still reading this, I can only assume that you've already read Allegiant? Right? If not, go away! Seriously, don't read this because I don't want to be blamed for spoiling the book for you!

First off, I'll talk about the things I didn't like about this book. Allegiant is not perfect, and I found it frustrating to read at times. The book started off strong, and the ending was even stronger, but the middle wasn't quite as good as I was expecting. It seemed like the book moved very slowly in the middle, and I found myself waiting for something exciting to happen. The compound setting was not as unique and mind-blowing as I'd hoped it would be. I did not expect the compound part of the story after the Insurgent cliffhanger. I expected something more, actually. I found the compound to be fairly unoriginal, something that makes an appearance in so many dystopian novels. Because it wasn't such a new and exciting thing, the compound seemed boring and unimportant at times. I wish the story had focused more on Chicago. I wanted to be right in the center of the factions and the war and the city, instead of being in the compound while Tris and Four sat around doing almost nothing. As a reader, it made me feel restless, and I wanted to skip ahead to the good stuff.

The conflict between the GPs and the GDs seemed unnecessary to me. I didn't find the discrimination against people who weren't "genetically pure" to be particularly interesting, and I don't think it was important to the story. Of course, this is just my personal opinion, but I just wasn't a fan of a lot of the new plot points that were introduced in Allegiant. I feel like it would have been a better choice to focus more on the continuation of the plots from Divergent and Insurgent, and have the story center around the war in the city rather than the issues in the compound. The scenes in the fringe in particular seemed random and necessary, and I feel like it was a waste of time to follow the characters to the fringe when the scenes turned out to not be all that relevant.

Allegiant is told from alternating points-of-view, and honestly, I'm not sure that was a good decision. I understand that it was important to get Four's perspective of this particular book as well as Tris's because they spend a lot of time apart. But I can't say I really enjoyed reading from Four's point-of-view. I have a lot of issues with the way he acted and the choices he made in Allegiant, and he almost didn't even feel like the same character as the Four in Divergent and Insurgent. Also, the points-of-view are very similar to each other. There is no obvious distinction between Tris's voice and Four's voice, which is confusing to read. I had a hard time remembering which point-of-view I was reading, and I wish the perspectives had been more different.

Despite all of these things, I still really like Allegiant. My absolute favorite thing about this book, and this whole series, is Tris. She is one of the best characters I have ever read about. Her evolution from the girl I met on the first page of Divergent to the girl I said goodbye to in Allegiant was fascinating and brilliant to experience over the years that I've been a fan of this series. Tris has grown and changed, and she has become a good person and a total badass. Tris is strong and brave and smart, but she also has flaws and makes mistakes and struggles with guilt over some of the things she has had to do. She has become a soldier in a war, and rather than shy away from it, she has embraced it. Tris is a character that I have grown to care about over the years, and it was heartbreaking when her story came to an end.

The end.

Yeah, I guess it's time to talk about the end.

The ending to Allegiant is amazing and perfect and heartbreaking. I did not see Tris's death coming AT ALL, but once I finished the book, I realized that it couldn't have ended any other way. Tris's sacrifice is an example of how brave and selfless she is. I knew she would never let Caleb give his life for the cause, but I honestly thought that Tris would survive. When I realized that she had died, I was heartbroken. Not Tris. No. It's not fair. How could Veronica Roth kill off such a fantastic character? How could she kill off the main character?

But what I've come to understand is that if Tris had not died, if she had not sacrificed herself, then she wouldn't be the great character that she is. Because of Tris's personality and values, the story could not have ended in any other way. If Allegiant had a different outcome, I don't think it would have felt as honest and real as this ending did. As painful as it was to read, I'm satisfied with Veronica Roth's decision to end the book this way. I still can't really think of Tris's death without my eyes welling up with tears, but I'm not mad at Veronica Roth at all. I think the ending of Allegiant is powerful and thought-provoking and well-written.

And as if I wasn't already a mess reading about Tris's death, Four's reaction BROKE. ME. I was sobbing so much. I had my issues with him in this book, but come on, this is Four we're talking about! My baby! I hated reading about his pain and emptiness, but I would not have expected him to react any differently. The epilogue and the scattering of the ashes was beautiful and perfect, and as I read the last sentence on the last page, I found myself smiling through my tears. That, my friends, is how you end a book.

The ending, while incredibly heartbreaking and painful, is definitely my favorite part of Allegiant. In my opinion, it more than makes up for the rough middle of the book. This ending is what I needed from the last book in this series. I needed a conclusion. I didn't think it would be a happily-ever-after, and it wasn't, but I'm more than satisfied with this conclusion to Tris's story. Veronica Roth impressed me with this ending, and I have so much respect for her for being brave enough to end the story like this. I think she's a fantastic author, and I look forward to reading future projects of hers. 

Sooo, if you've read this far, I guess you've finished Allegiant. What did you think of it? Were you satisfied with the ending? How many boxes of tissues did you go through? What is your favorite book in the Divergent series? Tell me everything in the comments below! :)