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A review by anovelstart
Allegiant by Veronica Roth
4.0
Well, to be honest I'm not quite sure what to make of it. I know I liked the book because it went on a total tangent and had a lot of new ideas, hence the four stars... but it didn't seem as good as the other two.
First off, the first two books were only from Tris's point of view, this instalment alternates between Tris's and Tobias's view points. It does make the reader feel closer to Tobias and get to know him better rather than through another person... but he seems like another person. The Tobias we know from the previous two books doesn't let stuff get to him, he lets it wash over him and he calms himself again. 'As calm as still water' comes to mind when you think of Tobias. In the third book he's a lot more sensitive, so far as to seem needy. This could easily be explained away as inner-feelings, emotions that are usually kept under lock and key, trained out of him during his time at Dauntless or due to his traumatic childhood. Tris is pretty much Tris in her chapters, but if I'm totally honest I got a little confused between the chapters on who was talking. Is it Tris or Tobias? I had to keep either skipping backward to the first page of the chapter to remind myself (for example, each chapter starts, "Chapter 1, Tris", or keep reading until another character talked to them, e.g. "Hey, Four!". I got over it at the end of the book as it became easier but it was still pretty confusing. This is why I gave the book four stars really instead of five.
My thoughts on the outside world (beyond the fence) was as expected for a dystopia novel, world coming to an end and all. I think the problem was it didn't quite seem realistic enough. I'm comparing it to the simulation war at the end of the first book; it was intense, emotional... but the world beyond the fence seemed not close enough to home. There was effort made by involving both Tris and Tobias in incidents there, but it still didn't quite seem realistic.
I found the conclusion a little disappointing at first but after processing it (during reading) I felt that any other outcome would go against the main characters basic character and morals, so I got over it and just swung with it. Acceptance was slow and begrudging. Just because it wasn't the ending I wanted doesn't mean I'm marking down my rating! Roth did a good job at writing the ending she chose, and if I'm totally honest the ending was one of the best parts of the book.
Another thing, I was totally and utterly gripped by the last two books, I just couldn't put them down. It was a real effort of will to get up for coffee or to make lunch and so on. This last book was different. I found it easy to put the book down at the end of a chapter, as opposed to sneaking in an extra page or two when I really know I shouldn't. I didn't find it as engaging as the previous books which is another reason for the four stars. To be fair, I was struggling to decide between three and four stars, but due to the ending I marked it up, not down.
In my review for the previous book, Insurgent, I mentioned that I had a lot of questions that I was hoping would be answered in this book, the good news is they was. I'm still going to read the spin-off series about Four that Roth has written, "Four: A Divergent Story Collection, #0.1 - 0.4". I'd still recommend this trilogy to anyone who likes action-packed, fight-for-your-life drama. And I'm still secretly hoping for a prequel of some kind. I don't really care about the contents or who the main characters are, I just want more to happen in their little world with Factions ;)
If you like my review please visit my book blog at: http://a-novel-start.blogspot.co.uk
First off, the first two books were only from Tris's point of view, this instalment alternates between Tris's and Tobias's view points. It does make the reader feel closer to Tobias and get to know him better rather than through another person... but he seems like another person. The Tobias we know from the previous two books doesn't let stuff get to him, he lets it wash over him and he calms himself again. 'As calm as still water' comes to mind when you think of Tobias. In the third book he's a lot more sensitive, so far as to seem needy. This could easily be explained away as inner-feelings, emotions that are usually kept under lock and key, trained out of him during his time at Dauntless or due to his traumatic childhood. Tris is pretty much Tris in her chapters, but if I'm totally honest I got a little confused between the chapters on who was talking. Is it Tris or Tobias? I had to keep either skipping backward to the first page of the chapter to remind myself (for example, each chapter starts, "Chapter 1, Tris", or keep reading until another character talked to them, e.g. "Hey, Four!". I got over it at the end of the book as it became easier but it was still pretty confusing. This is why I gave the book four stars really instead of five.
My thoughts on the outside world (beyond the fence) was as expected for a dystopia novel, world coming to an end and all. I think the problem was it didn't quite seem realistic enough. I'm comparing it to the simulation war at the end of the first book; it was intense, emotional... but the world beyond the fence seemed not close enough to home. There was effort made by involving both Tris and Tobias in incidents there, but it still didn't quite seem realistic.
I found the conclusion a little disappointing at first but after processing it (during reading) I felt that any other outcome would go against the main characters basic character and morals, so I got over it and just swung with it. Acceptance was slow and begrudging. Just because it wasn't the ending I wanted doesn't mean I'm marking down my rating! Roth did a good job at writing the ending she chose, and if I'm totally honest the ending was one of the best parts of the book.
Another thing, I was totally and utterly gripped by the last two books, I just couldn't put them down. It was a real effort of will to get up for coffee or to make lunch and so on. This last book was different. I found it easy to put the book down at the end of a chapter, as opposed to sneaking in an extra page or two when I really know I shouldn't. I didn't find it as engaging as the previous books which is another reason for the four stars. To be fair, I was struggling to decide between three and four stars, but due to the ending I marked it up, not down.
In my review for the previous book, Insurgent, I mentioned that I had a lot of questions that I was hoping would be answered in this book, the good news is they was. I'm still going to read the spin-off series about Four that Roth has written, "Four: A Divergent Story Collection, #0.1 - 0.4". I'd still recommend this trilogy to anyone who likes action-packed, fight-for-your-life drama. And I'm still secretly hoping for a prequel of some kind. I don't really care about the contents or who the main characters are, I just want more to happen in their little world with Factions ;)
If you like my review please visit my book blog at: http://a-novel-start.blogspot.co.uk