Howdy, Bookworms!
Last month I read Divergent and Insurgent by Veronica Roth. I, along with thousands of other greedy readers, waited in anticipation for the final installment of the series, Allegiant to be released. I’ve been toying with the idea of how to put this review together while still avoiding spoilers, so I’m going to do my best. I will not be spoiling this book specifically, but if you haven’t read the other books, there may be some spoilage. Soooo- here’s a weak little SPOILER ALERT just in case.
I was so excited when this book was released. I absolutely loved Roth’s initial tales of a dystopian Chicago ruled by factions, each faction valuing one personality trait above all else. I mean, I just HAD TO KNOW what was going to happen with the factions and Tris and Four and their luuuurve. So I started reading. Things started a little slow, but I had high hopes they’d pick up once the CONSPIRACIES were uncovered.
The conspiracies were actually fairly satisfying. What wasn’t satisfying was Roth getting heavy handed with the moral lessons. I am ALL ABOUT equality and diversity and all that good stuff, but you know how grouchy I get when I feel like I’m being preached to. LUCKILY, though she walked the line very closely, Roth didn’t QUITE go into full preach. That’s good, because I didn’t want to have to throw a temper tantrum.
Tris and Four and their little tumultuous romance kept on keeping on. At one point, Tris had this great epiphany about her relationship with Four. She realized that when you’re in love, you have to choose each other every day. At this point I had to remind myself that Tris is only supposed to be 16. She obviously hadn’t attending 8 zillion weddings with her husband as videographer, so she wouldn’t know that her little speech sounded just like this cheesy poem about marriage we used to hear ALL THE TIME. (It’s right up there with First Corinthians and anybody quoting Wuthering Heights on their wedding programs on the list of Things That Annoy Katie.)
There’s a huge thing that happens at the end of the book that has a lot of readers freaking the frick out. Now, I don’t always NEED a perfectly happy ending. I mean, I LIKE a happy ending, but I can be satisfied with a well done sad ending. I just… I’m confused about how I feel about this whole darn book. I didn’t hate it by any means, but I didn’t love it either. I so badly wanted to love it. It felt rushed, and now I feel confused. This is me right now:
(Source)
Have any of you Bookworms been left confused or bereft by the conclusion of a series? Disappointed? Heartbroken? I don’t know what my feelings are doing, help me out here!
If you are interested in purchasing a copy of Divergent, Insurgent, or Allegiant by Veronica Roth (or all three) please consider using these links. I’m an affiliate with Book Depository and make a teensy weensy commission if you make a purchase. We all know the proceeds are going to be used to feed my book addiction… Enablers :).
Megan M.
Ok, I haven’t read any of these books, but there was a book “Certain Girls” by Jennifer Weiner, which was a sequel to her book “Good In Bed.” Without spoiling it, I was so bewildered by the plot turn at the last twenty percent of the book that I kept wondering if it was a dream from which the main character was going to wake up. It just seemed so out of the blue and wrong. In real life things come out of the blue, but in fiction there needs to be at least a tiny bit of foreshadowing you know? Also the end of Jodi Picoult’s Handle With Care felt very forced and made me mad.
I’d love to hear the full list of Things That Annoy Katie because it sounds very entertaining! 🙂
Words For Worms
Ooooh that’s no good. I hate it when something that’s supposed to be real could legitimately be confused for a dream sequence (at least in fiction that’s supposed to be realistic, because I enjoy a bit of fantasy now and again.) Things That Annoy Katie is a rather long and involved list. I’m a curmudgeon of the highest degree.
Ashley F
Oooooooo. I haven’t read it yet but you know I mentioned that in comparison to Divergent, I was already a teeny bit blah about Insurgent. I’ll let know know how it goes!
Words For Worms
If you were blah about Insurgent, I think you’re going to end up throwing things come Allegiant…
Ashley F
Poop.
susanpen
I read it. And I am conflicted. I felt that Divergent was so fresh and new and exciting. I couldn’t wait to continue on with Tris and Four. The whole faction thing was so cool. And I just loved discovering this new world. Especially since I grew up in Chicago and recognized some landmarks.
To me Insurgent felt a bit like the filler book. You know the one in-between the two awesome books of a trilogy. The shorter one that you speed through to get to the heart of the story.
So I too was beyond excited to finally get to Allegiant. I will say I was a bit lost int he beginning because the story picks up right where Insurgent left off, and I had read that so long ago. And then the action started. It was too easy to leave the city and go beyond the fence that had held them in for so long. Shouldn’t there have been more guards or something. Everyone in it feels more passive than they did in the first two books.
I found the switching between Four/Tobias and Tris’s point of view incredibly distracting. Sometimes I would have to stop and think. “Wait, is this Four, or Tris” because their voices seemed so similar to me.
And the ending. I kind of thought it was going to go that way. But I can’t say that I was unbelievably upset. Which is weird because I normally am a crier. I just didn’t feel as engaged with the characters as much as a should have been.
It was a good book, but on the whole I found it an unsatisfying end to what could have been a great series.
Words For Worms
How did I forget to mention that?! YESYESYES the back and forth had me all confused- I kept having to go back and figure out whose chapter I was in. Gah!
Ashley Z
Ugh! This book has me so conflicted! It was rushed. Sooo rushed! They uncovered a conspiracy and it played out in the next chapter! Where’s the depth? Where’s the character development for the new characters? And the end? Oh the end! THE END????!!! I really don’t know how to feel! I liked that it wasn’t particulary predictable. But did THAT really have to happen? I didn’t feel the closure of finishing this series and having all my expectations met. Didn’t hate it. Didn’t love it. *sigh*
Words For Worms
I’m right there with you! I didn’t get a satisfied closure feeling. I mean, I GET that’s what the epilogue was trying to do, but it didn’t feel right. And the new characters had so little depth- like that Matthew- we only found out a smidge about his lady love at the last second? And that was his whole motivation? Bleh. No. Just. Confusion and frustration over here.
Casey
I freakin’ loved Divergent and Insurgent and I was very much looking forward to reading Allegiant. The day it was delivered to my Kindle, I saw the Amazon reviews weren’t so hot but since I was in love with the series so far I figured it was just people being haters when the writer didn’t do exactly what they wanted. Oh, was I wrong.
I was very annoyed the entire time I was reading Allegiant because she didn’t differentiate between the voices of Tris and Four. Each chapter sounded exactly the same. And I thought the ending was poorly done. I get the whole wanting it to be realistic thing but the rest of the books pushed the limits of what would happen in reality so why not round out the trilogy in the same manner? I think the final book definitely took away from how amazing the first two were. I would now give the Divergent trilogy a ‘meh’.
Words For Worms
Seriously! The ending made the whole series “meh” for me too! It felt slapped together and the Tris/Four switching chapters thing was confusing. I’d get halfway through and get tangled up in pronouns realizing that who I thought was narrating WASN’T.
Cindy W
I feel the same way as you and everyone else here about Allegiant. Changing between Tris and Four confused me. Although maybe I was reading too fast because I was so excited for the book. I was disappointed in the ending. I too don’t have to have a happy ending but I was still hoping for one. And the book just seemed to be missing something. I loved the first two books so much and this one was just “meh”.
I might try re-reading all three of them in a row and see if I like that any better.
And – there are three more short stories from Four’s point of view coming and I don’t really even see the point in them now. It’s almost like this book ruined the series for me. I hope I get over that – I’ve been really excited about the movie.
Words For Worms
Maybe I’d feel a little better if Four got something approaching a new lease on life in upcoming short stories? But really, I’ve kind of washed my hands of the whole thing. YA gets a bad rep, and I was really hoping this series would be a “here, I’ll prove you wrong, YA Hater” kind of thing, but now it’s not good enough to have crossover appeal.
Kathleen
I don’t need a happy ending but a sad one has to be done well. The ending was bad. There was no point to it – it didn’t seem realistic, necessary, or even well done. And the epilogue didn’t help. I think she started strong and went downhill all the way through the series. And while I LOVED Divergent and was meh about Insurgent I don’t think I’ll be recommending the series as one you HAVE to read to my friends.
Also, can I just say – I’m SOOOO glad you reviewed this book because I finished Allegiant and was so annoyed that I ended up annoying my husband because I kept harping on it. He is grateful I have this to post on instead as well. 🙂
Words For Worms
Hahahahaha! Yes, yes my dear. All malcontents are welcome here! 🙂
Jenny @ Reading the End
Aw. I have read a few things about the events of this book, and I’m still kind of excited to read it. I like it that it sounds like Veronica Roth really went for it with the third book, which is always good, even if it’s not completely successful.
Words For Worms
I’m interested to hear what you think of it! For all its faults (well, for what I perceive are all its faults) I have to hand it to Roth. She went big. She’s got guts!
Melinda
I keep on saying this, but I need to read this, as well as The Hunger Games!
Words For Worms
Dude- go for The Hunger Games first. I unabashedly love them.
Kelly
I just bought this for my Kindle, but haven’t mustered the nerve to read it yet. So many ambivalent reviews!! I am afraid of being disappointed…
I did LOL at your First Corinthians comment though. Seriously, wedding readings need some new material.
Words For Worms
I can’t wait to hear what you think of it- I hope you enjoy it because it bummed me out when I didn’t love it. (And for real- I intentionally picked the readings for our wedding to be the ones we heard least. We had a set list of options. It’s a Catholic thing.)
Quirky Chrissy
Don’t lie. You totally picked the gazelle one so I could imagine you as an antelope.
Girl
I actually took a vacation day to read all three…. but I did not like the last one at all. It was confusing how the chapters went back and forth with the same voice – I kept getting confused who’s chapter it was.
I felt like getting out of the city was too easy (especially because it was so obvious there were people who would try), and then they got out and the action just… stopped. They were just hanging around the airport. And there was SO MUCH government deception in the entire book, when they added like, three more layers of deception, I was like, okay, come on now. How can we trust anything ANYONE says at this point at all. So they talked for ages, quick action scene, a lot more talking, talking, talking.
Then the end was a shock, because the person had been shot like, 3 other times no problem (which, really? You would think after everything a human body could handle, getting shot over and over, and every other wound that happened) would make a person weaker, not continually stronger over time. So I was glad that there was SOME vunerability there, but I am a HUGE crier, and had about zero emotion to what happened. And I cry at COMMERCIALS, which only have 30 seconds to tell a story. So when I read it and was like – huh. Okay then., that there was an issue with the story there.
Overall, not too excited. Since I read all three in a row, I can say that the third was really very different than the first rwo. I was SO EXCITED to read the last one, and now I am just … flat about it. Blech.
Words For Worms
I completely agree- I barely had any tears and I totally cry at commercials too. The Hallmark commercials where the old neighbor gets a greeting card KILL me. Why didn’t this book? All the hurry up and wait… All the narrator switching. It put a big old wet blanket on my enjoyment of the series.
Girl
I was just rereading, and realized that the whole Uriah storyline is basically the exact same as the Prim storyline in the last Hunger Games. Like, all of it! The explosion, the main character watching it, the relationship fallout, come on. I will reread later again, but that was a little too similar!
Words For Worms
Ugh I hadn’t noticed that, but you’re right. That’s not cool.
Charleen
I just finished this, so I came back to read your review. Overall I enjoyed it, I thought for the most part it did a good job wrapping up the series, and I LOVE that we find out how we got from our world to their world, something that’s missing in a lot of dystopians (and even while I know that that’s not the point of anything I still want to KNOW).
But, there were some things that just made it a little less enjoyable, and the switching narration thing was a big one. Even though each chapter is marked clearly, it’s hard to adjust when suddenly “I” is no longer synonymous with Tris. And yes, the voices sound exactly the same. I get that there were some parts of the story that were important to get from Tobias’s POV, but it could have been done better.
The first book was definitely my favorite of the three.
Charleen
Oh, another minor thing I found strange…
They knew the old names for places like the Hancock building and Millennium Park… but they’d never heard the name “Chicago”?
Quirky Chrissy
Me too(with the just finished yesterday and came back to read the review)! The narration switching/same voice (GAH!). The not knowing Chicago. Annoyed with a lot of things in this third book. It felt too rushed.
I wasn’t opposed to the ending (the only really bad ending would have been if Tris and Tobias had ended up living happily ever after, and then I would have cut a bitch), but I wasn’t sad. I cry when a musical note hits me in just the right place, but this didn’t make me sad at all. I barely realized what was happening until I was like, oh, wait. She just died. I should probably be crying. I wonder if Tobias is going to find a happily ever after with Cara or Christina. God, I wish there would just be a strong teenage female without a boyfriend.
Charleen
Yeah, the romance was what I cared about least in the series, which is probably why the ending didn’t bother me as much as some other readers. I did at least like that it wasn’t a triangle. But yeah, it would be really refreshing to not need a romance at all.
Words For Worms
Agreed, a lady should be able to have her own story without a love interest or love triangle. I mean, I enjoy a good romance, but I think Tris would have been more interesting as a stand-alone character.
Words For Worms
SERIOUSLY!!! It’s not like it wouldn’t have been printed everywhere all over the ruins.
isaymythoughts
The book is really different from the motion picture. I suggest you read the book first so that you can compare. The book teaches a lot of values in life- about sacrifices, love, acceptance, bravery, guilt, friendship and many more. A round of applause for the strong imagery portrayed in the book. This book is a must-read!