Allegiant by Veronica Roth

Release Date: Out now!

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Pages: 544pgs

The Story

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.

The Review

Love it or hate it . . . I just have to say that I really enjoyed this book. Even when it comes to that ending that everyone can't seem to stop talking about and even when it wasn't my favourite read out of all three books. Still, it was enjoyable for me.

While I won't get into the major plot details of this book (don't want to spoil you see - that is, if you haven't been spoiled already) but what I am going to talk about is a little bit about the book and well . . . mostly about the ending ordeal thing because I must talk about that! But before I get into that, I have to admit that while I wasn't a hardcore fan of this series - at least not in a big, big way like everyone else was as I was more a Hunger Games dystopian kind of girl than a Divergent girl - but like with those many other readers that were onboard with this series from the get-go, I still very much enjoyed this series and come to appreciate - and even love - all of the characters we were introduced to from book's one, two, and three, and how much they have grown within those three books . . . so I totally understand why so many readers were so passionate and invested with this series. I totally understand in that viewpoint.

So in saying that, it's no surprise to me that this book had really took us on a really wild roller-coaster ride. It's no surprise at all really - in fact I expected it to be quite over-the-top - because when you consider and look back on everything the character's have been through and all of the sacrifices that needed to be made by those characters in question . . . it should not be all that surprising to us when the author, Veronica Roth, decided to take her book's final ending to a very extreme level for this final book, even when she will probably know that most of her readers will not necessarily agree with it and will only want that happy ending thing. It's not our fault for wanting that. We're readers after all. We invest so much time in many, many book series so it's our given right to hope for the best for our favourite characters. Readers after all always want our characters to deserve those kinds of HEAs when the characters have went through hell and back to get to the final point of the book. So yeah . . . I understand that. Completely. But what I really don't understand is all the backlash Veronica Roth has been receiving over the past month. Of course I understand where the readers are coming from and all of that, but this whole death-threat thing (trust me some things that have been said were quite ridiculous) is just something I just don't understand at all. We maybe readers but we're not authors. It's Roth's story after all and she can do anything with it. Even when it's a killer.

Honestly with this particular 'ending' of Roth's, you have to admit that it took guts to write an ending like THAT. Lot's of guts actually. And boy I do love author's who take risks like that. It just makes me admire and respect their writing style even more than I did previously. So while ALLEGIANT's ending was heart-breaking, shocking, unsettling and well something that may not have been totally expected by most readers, but it was written in that way and I totally respect it. For sure, it was definitely sad but I did suspect this ending was coming our way (from the sequel you could definitely tell something major was building up to the boiling point for the final book) and for sure I didn't really want my predications to come true because it's just . . . awful, but in the end if the author thought that this was the ONLY way to end her beloved series . . . then again I respect her in many ways for that decision. Inspires me actually in my own writing.

But moving along, while I really liked the ending (well maybe not the epilogue because I kind of wanted to see more emotion from it), I think the only reason why I'm not rating this book five stars is because of Four/Tobias's perspective that we finally get to read in this book. Now I've really come to love our main character's perspective, Tris, because her voice was so interesting and so honest, but for some insane reason and as much as I love Four's character, his perspective kind of ruined my enjoyment of the book. Of course I still enjoyed this book as previously ranted on above, but I felt - at least for most of the time - that Four's perspective was completely unnecessary. And perhaps had made me not like him as much as I did in books one and two. Still, Tris is what made this book extra special and in the end it only showed me just how much she had grown in this series. She's definitely going to be a well-respected heroine by the time you finish this book. So whatever happened to her and to the other characters around her, especially in the end which I don't want to giveaway, but Tris, in the end of it all, had really showed me what it takes to be selfless and brave . . . and I respect the author for how she dealt with Tris's character. It was brave indeed.

Overall, ALLEGIANT may leave you with many emotions indeed and whether you're a fan of the ending or not, I really came to enjoy this book and I'm looking forward to reading whatever else Veronica Roth has up her sleeve next. She's a gutsy author  - that's for sure!

The Rating

4/5 stars