Allegiant (Divergent, Book 3) (Divergent Trilogy) (utgåvan 2013)

Liked: lots of action that kept me interested and wanting to read to the end.
 
Hated: crappy story-line that does not make sense and way too many characters who behave completely out of character.
 
On the whole a 2 1/2 stars book: If I am honest, I liked it okay for about 2/3 of the book then the more I thought about it, the more I realized that there are too many parts of the story that  don’t make sense.  And the character issues and the rushed ending just killed it for me.  See below for a more thorough analysis with a few spoilers.
 
 
[spoiler]
The ending….yes, the ending that so many readers have hated.  Count me in and not just because it was sad.  Well, to be truly honest it isn’t just the ending that I hated.  I would love to criticize several things, but I will restrict myself to two issues: Tobias and Tris.
 
I hated Tobias whom I had loved as a character in both previous books. Tobias became such a wimp and I never would have thought he could be described that way.  Tobias a wimp???  Never!  But that’s exactly what he became.  He is suddenly so emotionally weak that he can’t make good decisions.  So he helps with an ill-conceived plan that gets Uriah and others hurt.  He’s basically a hand-wringing mess over how he feels about his parents.  And Tobias at the end, well I don’t think Tris would be all that impressed with how he turns out.  He works as a government assistant.  Really, an office job, are you kidding?  We are supposed to believe that his Abnegation background has come to the forefront and he’s going to be the selfless public servant that he was raised to be and not the soldier of fortune that he chose as a Dauntless.  I know the factions are gone, but he chose Dauntless because it fit his personality.  It wasn’t just an in-your-face kind of thing to his father.  I think he and Tris would have both chosen more action-oriented ways to help people, not some office job.
 
Then there is the memory serum issue in relation to Tris.  The Bureau plans to use it to wipe out the memories of everyone in Chicago so that they won’t go to war and kill a bunch of divergent people.  But Tris has a huge moral issue with that since it will wipe out the memories that really give everyone’s lives meaning.  But she happily goes along with a plan to use the memory serum to wipe out the memories of everyone in the Bureau compound (except her few friends) to prevent that from happening.  No moral qualms here because the ends (her friends in Chicago keep their memories) justifies the means (the memories of those in the Bureau who gave Jeanine the serum which resulted in her parents deaths are wiped out).  This moral dilemma is ignored completely as Tris and the others don’t seem to see that they are no different than those in the Bureau.  Tris and her group only care about their loved ones and the leaders of the Bureau only care about their gene purity project.  Each group will do whatever it takes to protect their interests.
 
And then of course, Tris dies to save the day.  Only she doesn’t save the day.  Tobias gives his mother the ultimatum to negotiate a peace treaty with Marcus and the Allegiant or lose Tobias forever, and this ultimatum stops the deaths in Chicago.  It doesn’t occur to any of the smart GP people who lead the Bureau to send him in to try something similar before they deploy the memory serum.  If she had died in a truly meaningful way I would not be mad, but her death is not at all meaningful.  It seems like she died only to give the end of the book the required powerful dénouement and not because it was truly needed to solve plot problems.  Weak, weak ending.
[/spoiler]
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I'm not sure what the story is here. Not wanting to spoil the whole series there is not much I can really comment on, but I didn't like the way the narrator jumped around. So used to exclusively following Tris that I felt comfortable there.

There is a story about the meaning of life and life and death here but it didn't provoke any insights so for me it didn't work. There is also a story about race and genetics and predetermined personalities but it did not really seem relevant either. ( )

I agree with many of the reviews out there that the plot in this book was a let down. The writing and character development were great, but the plot twist was a huge disappointment. ( )

Wow, this series did not end like I thought it would. When I was a teenager, I would have loved this ending and I would probably have gone back and re-read the entire series. As an adult, I'm not so sure. I'm in a different place now. Remembering where I was at way back when, though, I know I would have found the ending fitting.

I enjoyed the series. I think Divergent was the best book. I definitely cannot complain about the lack of action in this series - it is go, go, go all the way. Sometimes a little too action oriented for my tastes. They never slow down! Too much to do, too much to see, and only three books in which to do so!

Very interesting world Veronica Roth created. Dystopian fiction can be like that. Here's a world that could potentially happen (or not?) and how do we respond to it? How do we change it, for better or for worse? Hopefully, factions aren't the answer but they're entertaining to read about. ( )

Not what I expected which is nice. I think this author will get better with time. ( )