Allegiant is the final book of the Divergent series by Veronica Roth. After the twist at the end of Insurgent, this opens up into a new story before coming around to wrap it all up. These books offer no recap, so again, if you haven't read the other books, forget it, you'll be lost.
Tris and Four discover the secret of life outside Chicago, with the help of Amity. O'Hare airport is now the Bureau of Genetic Welfare, a government base where those in true power oversee, and sometimes aide the fighting factions. They find that society outside the gate, while calm and organized, is just as divisive. People are classified as either 'genetically pure' (like the Divergent) or 'genetically damaged', and the society treats them differently in subtle ways. The pure hold seats of decision while the damaged are the support staff. Tris and Four are soon caught up in another societal revolution, as the damaged secretly mobilize to overthrow the ruling powers - while the city moves closer to being 'erased' by the outside government.
Allegiant was one of the best of the three, as it took the characters and flipped them into a new situation. Tris and Four finally become a true couple, before separating into different missions. Tris discovers what being Divergent really means to her, and is ready to do what is necessary to help, not only the other Divergent, but the whole society from destruction.
As a series, I think these will stand the test of hype and popularity. Dystopian society novels are the fad right now, but I think these books deserve to stand on their own merit, and like The Giver, by Lois Lowry (which was also made into a movie), I think they will be read into the future. The characters were varied, so any reader could see themselves in the story and while there was a lot of action, the moral message of equality and embracing difference was just as prominent. Glad to have read the series.
2013 / Hardcover / 526 pages
Comments