Book: Allegiant

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.  (from Goodreads) 

Oh did I want to love this book. So, so badly I wanted to love it. I pre-ordered this baby I was so excited about it. 

In all honesty, I now would not recommend this trilogy to anyone. I would tell people to read the first book and stop there. 

I, personally, think that she rushed the story development and went for a hail-mary-lets-shock-them-all play. To say the end of this book was upsetting is probably the understatement of the year. I thought that this story-line cheapened the first two books because of the direction in which she took it. She went Stephanie Meyer style and introduced a bunch of brand new characters, which only moderately impacted the lives of the veteran characters. I  also think she wanted to feel like she would be taken seriously as a grown-up (because she is really young) and decided that killing off characters was an effective way to do that a la George R. R. Martin (author of Game of Thrones - LOTS of people die in those books/shows). I am not a big fan of that in YA fiction - I mean, yes, life isn't fair, people you love die. Suzanne Collins did it. J.K. Rowling did it. (I am still not over Fred) They both did it way better. 

This book turned into a big allegory on racism and class-equality as well, which is an important topic to make young adults aware of, but it kind of came out of left field, showing up quite suddenly in the 3rd installment of a trilogy. Like, suddenly she wanted the book to stand for something more than what it already did. 

I was also upset by an account of a young fan who had gotten an early release copy and went to a signing of Roth's. She tried to talk to the author about her decisions on how she ended this series and that she was upset about it. Roth's reply, "Oh, do you need some ice cream?". 

Ouch. No need to be snotty Veronica. 

This book ripped out my heart and stomped on it. I will never trust Roth again, and this book makes me not want to read her work anymore. So that's that.