Thoughts About Allegiant

In the future I plan on doing book reviews on this blog and I am planning on doing an official review of the whole Divergent series in which I won't give anything away, just share my opinion of it. However today's post is different.

Last night I finished reading Allegiant by Veronica Roth and I needed to talk about it. My feelings, thoughts, etc. And since I didn't have any friends who have finished it yet, I'm turning to the internet world.

This post has major spoilers about the ending of Allegiant so I highly recommend you do not read this post unless you have already finished reading it!! Please don't ruin it for yourself or get angry for me ruining it, because I warned you.

Click below to keep reading.

Divergent was honestly one of my favorite books I had read in a long time (until I read the Fault in Our Stars, review coming up soon!). I absolutely loved that it was an action packed teen novel that had a realistic love story unlike my other favorites like Hunger Games, Twilight or Harry Potter. The truth is, I love reading LDS romance novels and this was the first time a popular teen novel had a good love story (again, until I read The Fault in Our Stars).

So reading the next two books in this series was a no brainer. I convinced my husband that we had to buy the second and I read it in a few days and I was disappointed. It wasn't bad, it had wonderful love moments, it just didn't fulfill... something. But I brushed it away saying it's just the second in a trilogy, it connects to the next one. So I purchased Allegiant.

Last night I finished Allegiant and I couldn't sleep because of how insanely upset and disappointed I was by it!! 

(Here's the spoilers so seriously don't read on unless you've already read Allegiant!) 

Why would she kill off Tris? There are so many thoughts I have about that single event and prepare for lots of ranting about them. I read on Veronica Roth's blog her thoughts about putting this in the novel. You can find that blog post HERE. And while I truly do understand where she's coming from, I have a few flaws to point out. 

I love how Veronica Roth said that Tris learned from the second book to the third book about how to truly be selfless, instead of reckless. She did a fabulous job of portraying that by having Tris take Caleb's place. I also love that Tris shows she's truly forgiven and that she truly loves Caleb by sacrificing herself for him. I love that idea and it was perfect to add it there. 

But the whole time Tris was immune to many of the serums and while my adrenaline was pumping wondering whether or not Tris could survive the death serum, I wanted to believe she could. The book is in first person, Tris is the one talking, why on earth would the author kill off the narrator? And even knowing she was the narrator I still had that doubt about the serum, but that's what a good book is supposed to do. 

Tris struggled with the serum but I was so happy when she was surviving! I was so happy she had shown how much she loved Caleb, she learned how to be truly selfless, she saved the lives of her old home, and she and Four (because I dislike calling him Tobias) would be able to go on and live their life together. 

But then David walks in and points a gun at her. 

Again, I'm thinking, Tris is the narrator, and even though the whole book switches between Tris and Four, the first two books were entirely Tris, you can't kill off your narrator! But also what would truly bring David to shoot a sixteen year old girl??? A girl who had previously saved his life. A girl that was a perfect Divergent, immune to everything. 

Was David really so obsessed with having only pure genetics (which, btw, this whole story line was so complex that I don't even think I fully understand it, and the pure genetics thing is stupid in my opinion and I don't understand why it would be such a big deal) that he would shoot a sixteen year old girl to keep her from wiping some memories? 

Additionally, David was apparently in love with Tris's mother. David liked having Tris around because she reminded him of her (hopefully not in a creepy pedophile kind of way). So again, what would compel David to shoot Tris? 

I honestly don't understand how this situation was such a big deal to David that he felt the need to kill a sixteen year old girl to get what he wanted... while still ultimately failing. 

What Veronica Roth says about Tris learning sacrifice is great, she learned it by taking Caleb's place. But Tris survived the death serum and I found it so incredible rude to just pull the rug out from underneath the reader and give them that hope that she survived, that she did it, only to be shot. 

You can ask my husband, I was reading in bed and I literally shouted "WHAT?!?" because it didn't seem necessary! 

Next point, Tris's death wasn't fulfilling in my mind. Let's take a look at Harry Potter where so many characters are killed off. However, each of those characters are killed off for a reason, a good reason (except maybe Fred, how depressing was that). But JK Rowling is such a talented author that when she killed off each of those characters, my heart just broke. 

I mean, an owl died and I was crying. An owl! That never actually said one word in the books! And don't even get me started on Dumbledore or Dobby, those two I was bawling. 

But when Tris died I shouted "What?" There were no tears, there was no sadness, there was only anger and confusion. Actually, at one point while reading the end I did want to cry, but it was only out of anger and frustration. I was literally so angry I wanted to cry. 

If you kill off the narrator of your novel, which in my opinion is cheating, you had better hope your readers are crying over it. But I wasn't. Because her death wasn't fulfilling. It didn't serve a real purpose. She should have survived! It didn't seem fair! And I was so insanely frustrated, but not sad. Even as I finished up the book and read Four's sadness and them spreading her ashes, I was just so upset I couldn't even care. 

It's not right to kill off your narrator. Bravo for giving us a twist and taking a risk, but seriously, it wasn't right. She was sixteen, why would David kill her? 

If you finished reading my rant, congratulations! I honestly just needed someone to talk to about this ending and get it off my chest. Now, hopefully, I can stop thinking about it. 

Let me know what you thought about the ending of Allegiant in the comments below!!