Allegiant

Allegiant by Veronica Roth, 526 pages

In this, the highly anticipated final entry in Roth's Divergent trilogy, protagonists Tris and Four (who goes by his given name of Tobias throughout most of Allegiant) continue to peel back the layers of lies and manipulation that surround their post-apocalyptic community, and lead a rebellion against the new tyrants that keep popping up after the previous leader is displaced. (For those that have not read the first two books in this trilogy, Tris and Four live in a futuristic Chicago where people are split into five factions--Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless, and Erudite--that they choose based on the strongest parts of their personalities and nobody, save the Amity, are allowed outside city limits.) Allegiant finds Tris and Four finally crossing that barrier out of Chicago and discovering some of the world beyond.

It is not easy to discuss the final book in a trilogy without giving things away, particularly this one, which packs quite the mental and emotional punch. In all three of the Divergent books, Roth does an excellent job of presenting action sequences that provoke a lot of ruminations (many along the lines of "what would I do in that situation?") long after the last page has been read. Without giving away the ending, I know that I'll be mulling this one over for quite some time.

As much as I enjoyed this book, I do have a bone to pick with two elements of Roth's style. First of all, in both Insurgent (book 2) and Allegiant, she starts writing as if she assumes the reader has just put down the previous book in the series. I understand not wanting to interrupt a fast-paced story with backstory reminders, though it leaves any reader who didn't just binge-read the first two books scrambling to remember who's who and what's going on. This could've been solved by a quick who's who or short synopsis before the book started; perhaps future editions will feature this.

Second, and this one is specific to Allegiant, Roth writes this book from alternating points of view between Tris and Four/Tobias. She doesn't do this in the first two books of the series (both of which are told from Tris' point of view), and while it's obvious why she does this in Allegiant, Roth unfortunately doesn't differentiate between their voices enough to always make it clear who's narrating. Thank goodness for the labeled chapter headings!

That said, this is a good conclusion to the series. I look forward to what Roth does in the future. Recommended for teens, fans of stories about dystopian societies, and those who enjoy a good ethical dilemma. (But for goodness' sake, read the first two books first!)