Review: ALLEGIANT by Veronica Roth

Allegiant by Veronica Roth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So it’s been about five or six years since I first read the Divergent trilogy, and I’ve recently been doing research into the structure of the final book of a YA dystopian trilogy or series, and so I’ve just finished reading Allegiant again.

I didn’t re-read books one and two again, but rather dived straight into book three in my analysis, and I definitely think that this time round, I have different thoughts on Allegiant. I don’t know whether this is because I’m coming to it in a more analytical way this time, rather than as just a reader.

So, the majority of this book is fast-paced and the writing pulls you in. I was particularly enthralled by the imagery and how less says more in a lot of places—particularly as we’re shown Tris’s emotions.

Bringing Tobias’s POV into this trilogy with the final book is still something that bothers me a little. On the one hand, it’s great for his character development—he felt like he had real depth and I loved getting to know him more. But, on the other hand, it changed the tone of the trilogy, and its direction. One thing I remember loving about Divergent and Insurgent is how connected I felt to Tris as a narrator. Her voice really shone through the prose, and it feels like that connection was lost with book three as it’s told through two points of view.

But this new narrative structure also works—and it paves the way for the ending. I’m trying to be spoiler-free in this review, but let’s just say it’s clear the ending wouldn’t have worked if we didn’t have Tobias’s POV too.

The other thing I briefly want to mention here is that, while I liked learning more about Tobias, I found it harder to relate to him in many ways in this book because of his name change. For so long, he was known by his nickname (Four) to Tris and us, yet for the majority of this book he’s called Tobias by Tris, and in his own chapters too. This did feel a little jarring to me. I understand this is probably a personal preference though as other books where a character’s real name has been revealed at a late point has also bothered me.

This book definitely has a bigger-picture feel to it (which makes sense given the ending for book two and how Tris and co leave the city and head for the Bureau). The new worldbuilding is impressive, and it definitely puts a new spin on everything in the first two books, but at times, for me, it felt a bit too much. Like things had changed a little too quickly.

But this bigger-picture feeling led to many characters taking on bigger, more dominant roles in this book’s plot than the previous books. It wasn’t just a boy and a girl trying to save the world—it was organised and involved the work of several of the lesser characters too, and I really liked this. It showed a group of people coming together to fight where each plays an important role.

This book also throws up a lot of questions regarding the ethics of science, experiments, and genetics, and questions how much people are responsible for their own actions. I found this discourse very interesting in the way it was integrated into the story, but it did change the tone quite a bit—this book seems more political than the previous instalments of the trilogy which could arguably be thought of as more entertaining reads.

The relationship between Tris and Tobias is well-written in this book and is one of the most realistic romantic relationships I’ve come across in YA literature. They fall out, nearly break up, and it shows the true ups and downs. I especially liked how insecurity was a theme. It felt authentic and a natural build up of the events in the last two books.

And the ending? I remember the first time when I read it I was super shocked. I both hated it and loved it. This time, going in with the knowledge of the ending led to a different experience as I discovered just how much foreshadowing there is in place and the inevitability of that event. Yet it also made the pacing at the end seem slower in the final chapters—something that, on my second read, seemed to upset the balance of the book a little.

Overall, Allegiant is an emotionally charged and powerful story, but it differs in tone and theme greatly from books one and two in its series, almost becoming something very different and unexpected.


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