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I read and enjoyed the first two books in this series, so I of course picked up the third shortly after it was released. I found this one to be enjoyable in the same range as the first two, although not without its flaws, but definitely not the horrorshow that some other reviewers have written about.
At the beginning of this book Tris and Four are dealing with the aftermath of Four's mother Evelyn taking over the city and destroying the faction social system. Shortly after the book begins Tris is invited to join the Allegiant, a group looking to oust Evelyn and set up the faction system again, and she along with Four and a few others use the group's resources to escape the city. Once outside of the city, they are picked up by a former Dauntless that Four knew (and thought was dead), and they are taken to a government enclave where they find out "the truth" behind their city, what being Divergent means, and more.
Without getting into all the details of the story, it turns out that the city Tris and Four know is the remains of Chicago, which was seeded with a group of people for a multi-generational experiment to try and fix genetic damage caused previously. The serums were developed and given to the factions as ways to control the populace, and Divergence is a sign of a healthy genetic code. I did find the concept discussed of trying to fix behavior via genetic manipulation to be interesting, with unintended side effects (remove aggression and you remove motivation, for example), and wish that had been more than a throwaway paragraph. The struggles of "genetically damaged" versus "genetically perfect" are an interesting and different illustration of the have / have not dichotomy, and the struggles and decisions that Four and Tris have to make are interesting and developed well enough for the story.
I do think that the initial conflict that involves Four and Nita was a bit much, even as it did set up some later parts of the story, as their interactions rang a bit hollow as did those when Nita took Four out into the Fringe area. I liked the character of Matthew a lot, as well as the giant sculpture and what it signified. Overall this is not a bad conclusion to the story, and it was worth the read.
At the beginning of this book Tris and Four are dealing with the aftermath of Four's mother Evelyn taking over the city and destroying the faction social system. Shortly after the book begins Tris is invited to join the Allegiant, a group looking to oust Evelyn and set up the faction system again, and she along with Four and a few others use the group's resources to escape the city. Once outside of the city, they are picked up by a former Dauntless that Four knew (and thought was dead), and they are taken to a government enclave where they find out "the truth" behind their city, what being Divergent means, and more.
Without getting into all the details of the story, it turns out that the city Tris and Four know is the remains of Chicago, which was seeded with a group of people for a multi-generational experiment to try and fix genetic damage caused previously. The serums were developed and given to the factions as ways to control the populace, and Divergence is a sign of a healthy genetic code. I did find the concept discussed of trying to fix behavior via genetic manipulation to be interesting, with unintended side effects (remove aggression and you remove motivation, for example), and wish that had been more than a throwaway paragraph. The struggles of "genetically damaged" versus "genetically perfect" are an interesting and different illustration of the have / have not dichotomy, and the struggles and decisions that Four and Tris have to make are interesting and developed well enough for the story.
I do think that the initial conflict that involves Four and Nita was a bit much, even as it did set up some later parts of the story, as their interactions rang a bit hollow as did those when Nita took Four out into the Fringe area. I liked the character of Matthew a lot, as well as the giant sculpture and what it signified. Overall this is not a bad conclusion to the story, and it was worth the read.