Friday Reads: Allegiant by Veronica Roth

I have been eagerly awaiting this finale to the Divergent trilogy ever since the moment I finished Insurgent.  So, for well over a year.

Yet, when I opened Allegiant - it took me a good three chapters to remember anything that had happened in the second book!  So weird.  Luckily, it all started to come back to me as I read and I didn't feel the need to return to book two to catch myself up first. Much.

  The new factionless city that Evelyn is trying to enforce is a place ruled by violence and, quite frankly, not much better off than when the factions were in place. In this third book, a new group has formed - the Allegiant - and they want to know the truth.  When Tris and Tobias have a chance to leave the city and see what is beyond the limits of the only world they have ever known - they jump at the chance.  Soon everything they have ever believed about their world is challenged and shattered and trying to figure out who is right is tearing them apart.   From the government to the people in the fringe, they have found themselves in the middle of a battle neither expected...and it is one where choices may turn out to carry too high of a price.

I am trying to summarize without giving too much away.  It's still a new release and spoilers would ruin the experience.

I really enjoyed this last installment.  The ending took me by surprise, though it probably shouldn't have because it was completely true to Tris's character.   I found myself really enjoying the "child stuck between his parents" struggle that Tobias faces with Marcus and evelyn.  It reminded me a great deal of what Lyra in Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials faced between Mrs. Coulter and Lord Asriel.  Not knowing which parent is right and trying to figure out the lesser of two evils.

In the end, I think Roth has wrapped up the trilogy nicely.  Maybe not with a nice neat bow, but in a way that remained true to the world she created and had a very real feeling of actions and consequences. It's sad - no two bones about it...but it's real and it is a great wrap to this trilogy.

If you haven't read the trilogy yet - what are you waiting for?  Go.  Read.  NOW!!!!