Allegient by Veronica Roth {Book Review}

Today I am reviewing Allegient by Veronica Roth. Just so you know, I will try not to have too many spoilers here, but this is not going to be a spoiler free review. So, if you have not read the book, but intend to, maybe skip this post. Also, this review is more about how this book fits in with the previous two, and less about it as an individual book.

Summary
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 explosive conclusion to Veronica Roth's #1 New York Times bestselling Divergent trilogy reveals the secrets of the dystopian world that has captivated millions of readers in Divergent and Insurgent. 

My Review
With this book, I had the somewhat unique experience of not having ANY spoilers. Seriously, I did not even read the front flap of the book before I read it. That being the case, I did not know what to expect, and I have very mixed feelings.

I have always felt like Veronica Roth's characters and writing style is very much middle ground. I have absolutely nothing negative to say about them, but they also don't particularly stand out. I think that it is the story lines in her books that really make them stand out.

I will admit that I didn't have too high of hopes for Allegient. I have read far too many teen dystopian trilogies with a wonderful first book, and okay second book, and a disappointing resolution (Reached, and even Mockingjay are prime examples). It was not as bad I had feared it might be.

The main explanation for everything, which comes a third or so of the way through the book, was one I was happy with. It made sense to me, even though it could have used a little more fleshing out in my opinion. However, the book continued to stretch the idea to greater and greater lengths without ever really making it more then a reletivly abstract idea. I didn't love that.

By the end, the characters are rebelling against this idea, but I was never able to totally get behind them since I never really understood what it was they were rebelling against.

Warning, spoilers ahead. Nothing explicit, but enough info that you might be able to guess how it ends if you read it carefully.



Another thing that bothered me through out the book was the switch from Tris's 1st person POV in the first two books to now switching between Tobias and Tris. I found it rather annoying, though of course I understand now why the author did did that, and I really can't complain too much.

The way the book ended, that one thing that I am sure Veronica Roth is getting plenty of hate about, I can't say I really am too unhappy about. It felt somewhat appropriate, and it showed me that she was willing to take risks with her characters for the sake of the plot.

Who Should Read This Book
 Anyone who read and enjoyed the first two books. As the final book in a series, I can't really recommend it to anyone else.

Divergent - Veronica Roth

I recently just read Divergent for the second time. I absolutely love this book (and its sequel, which I will review very soon), and I am excited to talk about it.

I don't really want to go with my normal book review pattern, but I will briefly go over my main topics, and then talk more about some other things. The characters are good, especially the main character. They are less fleshed out the farther you go out from the core, but that is expected. There are a lot of characters, so I can understand that, especially considering none of them are bad at all.

The writing is good, but not totally amazing. It is by no means bad, and I enjoyed it, but it's also not the best writing ever.

Now, this is where I am going to go off my usual plan. The plot is terrific. It is what I really love about this book. I loved it from the very beginning, and continued to through out, which does not always happen. Often, I will like the original premise, but then I don't like where it leads. With Divergent, that never happened. Everything that happened made sense, even if I did not expect it. Nothing came totally out of the blue, but many things surprised me.

I have very few complaints about this book, but here they are:

1. It's in the present tense the entire time. I don't know about you, but this is not a trend that I like. I remember the Hunger Games was one of the first books I ever read that was written this way, and it was extremely distracting. I don't notice is so much now, but I still find it annoying.

2. Characters changing names. Not to be too spoilery, but at one point, a character is revealed to be someone else, and from that point on, he is called by his real name. Now, I have no particular complaints about this other then that the transition seemed a bit awkward.


While I was Googleing this book to get to the Amazon page to link here, I learned some news that I am not so excited about. They are currently filming the movie. Yeah. I know I am supposed to be more excited, but when ever they make a movie of a book I absolutely love, I have a hard time being excited (except for The Great Gatsby, I am incredibly excited for that one). I plan on doing a whole post about why that is in the next week or two

So there you go. Divergent. I will review Insurgent very soon. Also look for my post about the transition from book to movie.