Sunday, January 12, 2014

Allegiant by Veronica Roth - Review


I finally got this book from the library!!  I also read straight through almost... ready to get it done.  Another series finished.  Of course this was an unexpected finish to the series.... here is the goodreads description:

The faction-based society that Tris Prior once believed in is shattered—fractured by violence and power struggles and scarred by loss and betrayal. So when offered a chance to explore the world past the limits she’s known, Tris is ready. Perhaps beyond the fence, she and Tobias will find a simple new life together, free from complicated lies, tangled loyalties, and painful memories. But Tris’s new reality is even more alarming than the one she left behind. Old discoveries are quickly rendered meaningless. Explosive new truths change the hearts of those she loves. And once again, Tris must battle to comprehend the complexities of human nature—and of herself—while facing impossible choices about courage, allegiance, sacrifice, and love. 

This book is long... and when I started reading it I really couldn't remember what had happened in the first two books.  So I looked the recaps up: Insurgent recap,  and Divergent recap. This did help... once I got going in the story too I caught up with the plot.   Now let's talk about spoilers shall we.  I hate them.  I didn't read this book till now because I have been waiting this entire time for the library to get to me on the list.  So of course I avoided all reviews.. discussions... anything about this book.  Plus I could tell there was a big reaction to the book so I was like... ok avert eyes.  Yet.. the book was fricken spoiled.  Where of all places you ask??  Pinterest!  I was browsing along when there was a funny picture of someone pointing their finger at the book in a corner I glance at the comments, yep MAJOR spoiler.  I was so disappointed.  I pondered whether I should read it or not?  Of course I did read it. (I also read the same spoiler later in someone's comment on a review.. I think we forgot to mark comments as well as blog posts).  Now if you follow my blog you know that in my reviews I always mark spoiler/end spoiler.  In fact I moderate the Stephen King Fan group on goodreads where I have a strict spoiler policy.  People get mad and say... everyone should've read that book already.  Really is it up to you to ruin it for me just because I didn't read it!!

Normally I think most of the book community doesn't have problems with that.  There really aren't too many books where the ending is so just shocking that people everywhere are talking about it.  I think we find that more with TV series (Sons of Anarchy, Walking Dead, Game of Thrones).  But really I think that people should just know better.  Ok so off the topic of spoilers!

Let's see .. what did I think of Allegiant.  I liked the book.. but didn't like how it ended.  If you are a Stephen King reader you will be used to these kinds of books (Dark Tower anyone???).  I as a reader wanted to be satisfied at the end.    There were really a lot of plot holes in this book though.  I felt like I'm reading a long and then all of a sudden so many things are happening at once. The two POVs also made it seem like there was a lot going on.  I suppose we did need two POVs with the ending and all but I really was confused sometimes.  I know the names were at the tops of the chapters too!

So we leave the experiment area in the book.  I thought that we would go a little farther out then the characters do.  Now here comes spoilers SPOILERS PEOPLE!!

The explanations of why the whole society is how it is wasn't what I was looking for.  I mean, I figured it was going to be some type of government society.  This always happens in books.  But I didn't think it was going to be about DNA.  Damaged DNA and Pure DNA. Apparently the Damaged has been hurting society and there was this big war.  Then the country decided to fix the DNA so they did these experiments to fix DNA. So now we have this new plot of Tris and Four not being perfect for each other because suddenly Four is damaged and is not Divergent.  The whole DNA thing was a little odd.  No explanation really.

At the same time this is all happening there is war in the experiment area between the factionless and the rebellion. They are about to destroy each other.  Then we have the government deciding this isn't good so they are going to go in and do something about it. Tris and Four seem to constantly be going at it in this book.  Anyways... and then during all this Tris dies but trying to stop the government.  She makes it through that death serum and then still dies?  I don't know.  I mean... I guess that in the end her character was reckless.  She was during the whole book.  But people don't want that at the end of the book.  Especially such a long book.  They are looking for more satisfaction! This is clearly why we have a second POV.  I just don't know.
END SPOLIERS

I suppose that in the end I just didn't feel satisfied by this series.  I invested a lot of time only to be disappointed. I keep reading all the reviews now and it's either they love it or disliked it.  No between really.  I just don't know either.

The Crystal Ball Says:


Rain is pouring...  Not sure if this was really worth my time, must get an umbrella.


My reviews on Divergent by Veronica Roth
Insurgent by Veronica Roth
Please mark any spoilers in the comment section!


28 comments:

  1. Regarding spoilers, I'll definitely stop following a blog if they're bad about dropping in spoilers with no warning. (Or, if I like the blog otherwise, just stop reading their reviews.) But I don't necessarily think about it in the comments. I do tend to veil my comments just in case (like, in talking about Allegiant, I'll refer to "that thing that happens") but then the blog author will respond to my comment and blatantly talk about it. As a reader, though, I just don't read the comments if I haven't read the book.

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    1. I think about comments only because I guess I am used to chatting in goodreads. I run two groups on there. We have to make sure in the King group that all the comments don't have spoilers and if they do that they are marked correctly. So I guess maybe I am just constantly thinking of spoilers!

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  2. I still need to read this, I loathe spoilers, and thank you for the warning on where to stop reading. I try darn hard to make my reviews and comments spoiler free and never disclose more than the synopsis. I am anxious to read this but bummed about the plot holes.

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    1. I do sometimes discuss spoilers in my reviews. BUT I always make sure they are marked. Nothing is worse then being excited about a movie/TV show/book and then find out the twist before you get to explore it for yourself.

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  3. I was confused about the change of POV as well. They switched so suddenly for me that I was caught off guard.

    I actually didn't finish Allegiant because my loan at the library ended before I could do so. I really didn't mind though, yes I invested time in the first two books but not enough to care about the ending of the trilogy.

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    1. It is a little sad I think it's worth the read... it was still a good book just not a great ending. I mean I think you like the book if you like the ending and you don't like the book if you don't like the ending. That is at least what I have seen so far.

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  4. I love that you get as mad at people not marking their spoilers as I do. I haven't read this book but I like to read reviews so I know what I'm getting into. Thank you for marking your spoiler. I avoided that section for now. I'm still on the list at my library.

    I have not been impressed by this series myself but I have to finish it. Great review.

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    1. I am really leery about the movie too. It kind of looks like a flop to me right now. But maybe the reviews will start coming out and it will be great. I was on the list at my library forever!! As soon as I got it I started it so I could finish it before it was due back.

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  5. TBH, I enjoyed this more than you do but still, it's really a disappointing performance. When I read this book, I was able to avoid spoilers because I immediately read it on the release day.

    If truth be told, maybe I contributed to the spoiling of the other readers. I am sorry for that. Re: Tris' death, I think I hold a neutral ground about it. At some point, my other half was okay with it. My other wasn't because she get to die for a petty reason and then Veronica let the other characters live. And those characters were even badly developed that I wouldn't have blink an eye if they died along with Tris.

    Anyway, great review, Angie. I hope your next series will be better than this.

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    1. I had to decide...was the book poorly written or was I just bummed about the ending. I tried to use that for my rating. I didn't want to just rate it poorly because I was unhappy but then again... is that was a bad rating is? Being displeased with how the plot is going??? I don't know. I will admit the rating was a tough one for me. But I finally settled on 2 out of 5. I wish I could read books on day of release but since I get all my books from the library I have to wait. BOO!!

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  6. It certainly was a very disappointing end to the series. I really did try to go into it with an open mind despite the reviews but it just fell flat for me. And you know how I feel about that ending!

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    1. I liked the beginning of the book.... I would say about 200 pages in was when I could start to see where it was going. It wasn't even so much that crazy ending as it was just too much going on. All those things everyone wanted to accomplish with like 10 people?? Crazy.

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  7. The DNA thing was really weird for me as well. It just seemed to come out of nowhere and didn't fit with the rest of the series. Maybe if she did a better job of weaving those elements into the first 2 books, it wouldn't have been so weird.

    I don't mind spoilers so much. I think people have a right to talk about the book/movie/tv show they read/watched. If I don't want to know what happened, I just make sure to avoid looking at anything about the thing until I'm caught up.

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    1. You are right about spoilers... I agree that people should get to write what they want about a spoiler. Really if you read the book/movie/tv fine. I just don't know why it can't be marked... but that's just me. For example... I really try to avoid facebook until I have seen the current episode of Walking Dead. People just blab about it right after. Another problem with that is people on the East Coast see if before the West. HA.. this reminds me of something else! I used to have to avoid the sports news agencies when I lived in Alaska because when they aired in the US they hadn't aired on Sunday in Alaska yet. Man that would be such a bummer if I saw a score before watching the game!

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  8. I have been waiting to read this book for a while and am kind of scared because of a spoiler. I'm still bracing myself for it.

    And I wanted to thank you for actually marking your spoilers - not everyone is that considerate.

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  9. Aww god yes I hate spoilers! There is nothing worse than stumbling across one by accident.
    I completely understand what you mean with the ending. I mean I liked it - I thought it was a brave move and that it did work. It left me so heartbroken and I started the second not feeling all that impressed by it! I do get what you mean though at the same time. I felt like the government control issue was a little flat. I was hoping for a bit more. I felt like that just shattered my whole allusion of the factions, but I suppose that was the point?

    Anyway, great review hun! :) x

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    1. Of all places to run into the spoiler... Pinterest??? People rarely have conversations on there in the comments so I thought I was safe and the WHAM. I really don't know how I would've felt reading about the big shocker had I not known it was going to happen. Since I read the spoiler I knew what was coming since page 1 so it didn't blow my mind.

      The factions being what they were didn't surprise me.... but why was everyone so desperate to fix just this one??? I don't know... some things just didn't add up.

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  10. I just skipped to the end of your review, because I haven't read this book yet. I read the first two, and I must admit that I wasn't impressed. I do want to finish up this series though.

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    1. Even though I didn't love the ending to the series I am glad I read it. I don't like to leave series up in the air and want to see what happens. I might be disappointed in the route the author took but still I wanted to know how Roth was going to end it.

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  11. I felt the same way too. I read the book a month after its release and some of the booktubers I'm subscribed to mostly said that fans would get a shock. I didn't see the big shock comin and bam I was thrown of my seat and it took me a week to finish cause I couldn't accept the fact that the book was written like that and one day I set myself down to finish reading and luckily i tide through. But seriously, there were a ton of things that made me angry and frustrated and when I finished the book, I had mixed feelings and feeling meh.

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    1. Yeah... I don't know. I think the author too a huge chance and it might have succeeded but in the end I think it failed. I mean, it's good to take big chances and sometimes they work (Dumbledore) but this one didn't. I don't know how I would've reacted if I didn't know what was coming.

      Speaking of booktubers, they are getting pretty popular. I should start checking them out. Do you have any to recommend.

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  12. Ahh isn't is so annoying to be spoiled?! I heard many people got spoiled about the ending and especially with an ending like THAT it could ruin the whole reading experience. I was satisfied with Allegiant but that doesn't mean I wanted anyone to die. The damaged DNA part wasn't my favorite either but it is what it is... The Divergent trilogy is still one of my faves!

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    1. So annoying. I really liked the series too ... it just ended poorly. Like Twilight which ends poorly to me also. I can't stand the ending of it!!!

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  13. I totally agree with you - the dual POVs just really didn’t work in this one. Also that sucks that you got spoiled on Pinterest of all places!

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    1. Dang Pinterest!! I never would've thought. I will be more careful reading comments on there now (even though there aren't usually comments posted on there).

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  14. I love this series so much. I really liked Divergent and I loved Insurgent... but I'm sorry. Allegiant was a copout.


    I was just so confused. Did being Divergent actually mean anything? Not really rigfht? So why did Tris survive the death serum? Why why why? Too many questions left unanswered.

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  15. I agree!!! My mom just read Divergent and then I told her the series ended funny and she googled it and then refused to read it. LOL!

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