Thursday 4 September 2014

Allegiant - Veronica Roth ( Divergent #3 )

Blurb:

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. 


Review:

This is not going to be a very long review because most of the things I would like to say about this book would be considered spoilers, and I wouldn’t do that to you. But there are a few things I think I can manage to say without ruining anything.


First of all, Tris is probably the bravest person in the world. I don’t think a person like Tris could exist to be honest, she’s just too brave and selfless. She is almost unbelievable in her bravery, but her indecision and self doubt brings her down to earth again.Tris will make you despair and realise what a terrible, terrible person you are, but she also made me hopeful that maybe if the situation called for it, I could be as brave as her.


In Allegiant the worlds Roth created is blown wide open. It’s a bit mad to think that she had this other, almost equally crazy world hidden behind her original one. I presume that she had this plotline planned all along but it surprised me so much I wouldn’t be surprised if she made it up afterwards.


The themes really become clear in this novel, much more so than the other ones. Like in The Hunger Games and Harry Potter , Roth deals with the themes of bravery, sacrifice and love and war. If it had been the first novel of this type I had read, it probably would have affected me a bit more. Not that what Roth tells us isn’t true or profound, but I had heard it all before. However , it does make me hopeful that books like these will help raise an anti-war generation of people who understand war to be more than an act of glorious patriotism.


Roth’s world is one heavily based on science, and through this she explores how our newfound scientific knowledge affects our morals and the way that we live our lives. Roth deals with the idea of genetics, how much of our behaviour can be blamed on our genetics and if we as humans can overcome our genetic destiny. These are really interesting questions that we are yet to answer, and it was kind of mind bending to think about it.


I only have a few tiny problems with this book and I’ll deal with them here. Allegiant is written from both Tris and Four’s point of view, which I don’t dislike in theory, but I felt that sometime their voices were indistinct and I had to keep flicking back to the start of the chapter to check who was supposed to be talking. I felt that the story was sometimes served and enhanced by this dual perspective, but I mainly feel Roth had an ulterior motive for using Four. In my opinion there were too many characters in this book, but maybe that’s just my inability to keep up with more than six characters at one time.


I would recommend this to anyone who liked the first two books and wants to find out where Tris and co. end up. The ending, well it really depends on what kind of person you are whether or not you find it satisfactory. I didn’t, but that’s just me. I completely understood why Roth finished it the way she did, but that doesn't mean I liked it.
3 and a half Stars

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