Allegiant (Book Review)

Author: Veronica Roth
Year: 2013
Genre: Dystopian
Reading Level: Young Adult
Series: Third in the Divergent trilogy

Literary Awards: 

Goodreads Choice for Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction (2013)

Plot Summary: The factions are gone--or are they?  The city is still divided, a new war beginning between those determined to keep the faction system dead and those wanting to bring it back.  Tris leaves it behind in favor of finding the world outside.  But is that world any better than the one she left?
 
Red Flags: Language, violence, teenage lustiness

My Rating: C
There's not really much to say that I haven't said already (twice).  This was my least favorite of the three, probably because not much really happens.  It's a lot of sitting around and talking about what to do and angsting over one's genes.  I think the biggest problem here is that the story just got away from Veronica Roth and turned into a bloated mess without much focus.  As usual, there were too many characters, making none of them memorable.  The writing was the same so-so, lazy stuff, and the dual perspective really didn't work for me since Tris and Four sound exactly the same.  (And really, the only point of it was for the sake of the ending.)  As for the end, what was the point of all of this?  Did they really make a better world?  I guess.  Is it going to last?  I'm not so sure about that.

As for the that whole genetics thing, that would have been more interesting if it had come in earlier in the series.  Everything this book is about basically began with this book, which seems like a problem considering there are three.  There's not even a villain to tie all three books together, and there's not really a good villain at all in this one.

Anyway.  I'm glad it's over.  And please, world, please stop with the first person present tense!  Please.  Let's get rid of the delusion of Suzanne Collins-induced grandeur.

Memorable Quotes: 

"Fluorescent light glows behind Evelyn's hair.  I can't see her face...Evelyn's eyes pinch tighter."--p. 12: Can you see her face or not??

"She's wearing something dark around her eyes to make their color stand out..."--p. 66:  You're telling me Four can't recognize mascara?

"Seeing an Erudite process something is like watching the inside of a watch..."--p. 78: Come on.

"We move closer together like sections of a tightened shoelace."--p. 91: Come ON.

"Her eyes are dark, with the same sheen as a puddle of oil beneath a leaking engine."--p. 172.  So her eyes are like rainbowy?

"...I hold on to his arms to stay steady as we press together like two blades at a stalemate."--p. 229: ...

"Tris stands so still, her hands dangling limply, turning red with the flush of her blood."--p. 269: How long has she been standing there??

"Their faces are covered with dark fabric, disguising all but their eyes..." AND YET: "...standing among the invaders, wearing the same mask as the others, is a girl with a dark ponytail."--p. 286: So, they are like...face masks? With an elastic string holding them to their heads?  AND YET:

"Nita [ponytail girl] smiles a twisted smile."--p. 289: So...what kind of mask is this, exactly?

"David sits in a wheelchair, his legs covered in a stiff material--to keep the bones in place so they can heal, I assume."--p. 321: You mean like a CAST?

"It's strange how time can make a place shrink, make its strangeness ordinary."--p. 387: Just lazy.

"I am a child.  I am two feet tall..."--p. 465: A six-month old child then.  Okay.