Review: Allegiant by Veronica Roth

Allegiant
Veronica Roth
526 pages
Published October 22 2013 by Harper Collins Children's Books
Rating: 4/5 

Now many reviewers have given Allegiant low reviews and I probably would have too had I written my review immediately after reading the book. I was in complete and utter shock muttering to myself, "I can't believe this!" However, I decided to step away and really think about and evaluate what I read. My goal is to give true and honest reviews and I can't do that when I'm still reeling from the emotional roller coaster. So without further ado, here is my honest review of Allegiant by Veronica Roth.

The story, near the end, definitely took a turn that I wasn't expecting and at first I didn't really like it but after I thought about it, Allegiant is a dystopian so it's not going to give me an ending where everything magically works out and we go running off into the sunset happily ever after. Dystopians are about the real world, our world, and how easily it can get so messed up so naturally it needs a real world ending. Was the ending bad? No. Was it what I wanted? No. Was it fitting for the story? Yes, a thousand times yes. 

The world can be a crappy place, people can be crappy, a lot of damage can happen to us and unfortunately nine times out of ten our lives do not have a perfect ending. Allegiant shows that despite this, there is hope. Everything may not be perfect but grab hold to things that do/did work well and never let them go. They have molded you and make you the person, hopefully a better person, you are today. You will grow, you will change, and as Tobias stated you will be mended. Most importantly, you will live on. 

Speaking of Tobias, I really had an internal tug-of-war over him in Allegiant. He was not the same cool, super bad ass we met in Divergent. This really bothered me because that was the guy I/we all fell in love with and all I/we ever knew when it came to him and that's just it, that's all I/we ever knew about Four. The guy we fell in love with was great but he was incomplete, not whole. In Allegiant, Roth allows Four to grow leaps and bounds so that he could finally become a whole person. We may not like it because he occasionally comes off as a "pansycake" but it was necessary for him to go through that cathartic journey. As much as we think he was a total bad ass, Tobias was still that scared little boy who lived in the Abnegation sector. Allegiant finally forced him to face his fears and become the strong man he always wanted to be. 

Point, blank: read Allegiant. It may not have the ending you're used to or want but it was the perfect ending for the Divergent Series. I laughed, cried, was happy, surprised,got angry and was left, for the most part, satisfied. Hats off to Veronica Roth for being bold and giving us an ending that we truly needed.