Scan barcode
A review by gregsgal
Allegiant by Veronica Roth
3.0
This book in the series was hard for me - harder to get into, harder to get through, harder to focus on. In part, this was because of the Tris/Tobias romance. At times I felt it was so prominent and stalled any progession in the story.
Things I liked:
1. Growth in characters' relationships, specifically Caleb and Tris. It's understandable that they would have a love/hate relationship since they're siblings, but then add in the experiences from the last book, and it would be odd not to hold a grudge or have a chip on your shoulder. I liked that Tris struggled with herself about whether to love him and forgive him or hate him and not care what happens to him. I also liked that it took time for her to decide; that it wasn't a quick "booo, I'm mad at him" [take a breath and eat a piece of pie] "and look! now everything is better!" kind of decision for her either.
2. Christina - she lends a fair amount of reason to the other characters when they're being unreasonable. I also liked the friendship she creates with Tobias. It felt real considering the circumstances.
3. The twist.
4. That other twist. There were more than two twists or surprising revelationns and I enjoyed all of them. These two in particular were my favorite.
Things I didn't like:
1. The romance. Ok, I didn't hate it, I just felt like it could have been dialed down. I think I just fall more in the "action book, minimal romance-y type stuff" rather than "action book that centers around a fledgling romance in which the two people feel like they can't exist without the other." I don't think this book fell hard in the latter type, but it was in there pretty well.
2. Tris' apparent invincibility. It got old hearing about how nothing seemed to cripple her.
3. The third book goes back and forth between Tris and Tobias narrating (differentiated by headings at the beginning of each chapter). By the end of the book I understood why it was written this way, but it seemed odd until that point. I also felt like writing it this way made Tris and Tobias sound very similar. Their characters didn't stand out as two entities as easily as they had in the previous books and I had some difficulty remembering who was supposed to be narrating that particular chapter because their voices seemed so alike.
Things I liked:
1. Growth in characters' relationships, specifically Caleb and Tris. It's understandable that they would have a love/hate relationship since they're siblings, but then add in the experiences from the last book, and it would be odd not to hold a grudge or have a chip on your shoulder. I liked that Tris struggled with herself about whether to love him and forgive him or hate him and not care what happens to him. I also liked that it took time for her to decide; that it wasn't a quick "booo, I'm mad at him" [take a breath and eat a piece of pie] "and look! now everything is better!" kind of decision for her either.
2. Christina - she lends a fair amount of reason to the other characters when they're being unreasonable. I also liked the friendship she creates with Tobias. It felt real considering the circumstances.
3. The twist.
Spoiler
I did like that their world turns out to be an experiment and that there are other cities across the country in similar situations for the sole purpose of fixing the population's genetic code.4. That other twist.
Spoiler
Can I tell you how strangely thrilled I was that Tris dies? How often does the main character die in a YA book?!Things I didn't like:
1. The romance. Ok, I didn't hate it, I just felt like it could have been dialed down. I think I just fall more in the "action book, minimal romance-y type stuff" rather than "action book that centers around a fledgling romance in which the two people feel like they can't exist without the other." I don't think this book fell hard in the latter type, but it was in there pretty well.
2. Tris' apparent invincibility. It got old hearing about how nothing seemed to cripple her.
3. The third book goes back and forth between Tris and Tobias narrating (differentiated by headings at the beginning of each chapter). By the end of the book I understood why it was written this way, but it seemed odd until that point. I also felt like writing it this way made Tris and Tobias sound very similar. Their characters didn't stand out as two entities as easily as they had in the previous books and I had some difficulty remembering who was supposed to be narrating that particular chapter because their voices seemed so alike.