Book Review - Allegiant by Veronica Roth

Having already read Divergent and Insurgent I put Allegiant on pre order for when it came out in paperback. It arrived a few weeks ago along with The Annihilation Score.

I’d intended to wait until I’d read some of the ARCs I’d been sent before reading Allegiant, however I couldn’t quite resist knowing how the trilogy ended. The whole trilogy is like an onion, there are more layers beneath this one and it can make you cry. Mainly it made me cry because the world building looked poor, and then Roth revealed this as another layer which can only be peeled back when you spot its flaws.

Spoilers

If you haven’t read the books then some of this review might spoil them.

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

In Allegiant Tris, Four and others leave the city to escape the rule of the factionless, who have outlawed the faction system. On leaving the city they are met by some Dauntless that Four thought had been killed because they were divergent. They had been sent out of the city instead.

Outside there is a modern world, albeit ravaged by war. Chicago is an experiment to try and repair genetic damage brought on by inexpert genetic engineering eight or so generations earlier. This new world is just another onion skin layer and it watches over Chicago. Tris and the others are in limbo, other than Tris they are all considered Genetically Damaged (GD) and therefore a lesser caste. Tris doesn’t accept this and struggles to deal with the situation and keep hold of those she loves.

Like the previous two Allegiant is a real page turner. Lots of short chapters tempt you in to reading just one more and you end up going to sleep much later than you expected.

The story makes sense, except where it clearly isn’t supposed to. I almost gave up a couple of hundred pages in because of what I perceived as a wrong headed explanation of the genetic damage, and then I realised that it was part of yet another layer of duplicity.

The end isn’t completely telegraphed, although it is predictable because it is in character for those involved. There’s also a bit of epilogue that ties up what happens to the characters afterwards. So all in all a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy.