Book Review for Allegiant


Allegiant, written by Veronica Roth, published by Katherine Tegan Books on October 22nd 2013 in New York. Allegiant is an incredible book and the series finale of the Divergent series. Veronica Roth also wrote Divergent and Insurgent. Veronica Roth lives near Chicago. Allegiant is an amazing book and thrilling close to the Divergent Trilogy. Tris and Tobias, the main protagonists of the story are from a futuristic Chicago, where people live in factions dedicated to a certain characteristic of a person’s personality. Throughout the trilogy, there is a struggle between factions, which erupts when Erudite, the faction dedicated to knowledge and intelligence, attacks the other factions. Erudite does this by taking control of the majority of Dauntless by means of an advanced serum, during the attack, Tris’ parents are killed, haunting her for the rest of the series. The story of Allegiant begins after Erudite is defeated. In order to bring about this victory, Tris and Tobias had to ally with the factionless, those who live in poverty as the rejects of the faction system, led by Tobias’ estranged mother, Evelyn. The factionless take over the city after helping Tris and Tobias to defeat Erudite. Allegiant carries a strong theme of sacrifice, selflessness, and compassion.

Both Tris and Tobias are from this selfless faction Abnegation and both switched to the brave and martial faction Dauntless. Tris (or Beatrice Prior) was from a typical Abnegation family, but on the day of her rite of passage, called the “choosing ceremony” in an inspired and possibly rebellious act, Tris chooses Dauntless as her faction, to her parents surprise. During initiation into Dauntless, Tris is an underdog, many times thought to be weak but eventually becoming a prodigy. Within the time of her initiation, Tris makes many bonds of friendship: with Christina, a Candor (honesty) faction transfer, and Will, an Erudite transfer as well as Tobias, who becomes her boyfriend. During the Erudite attack, Tris saves most of her friends from being controlled by the serum. However, Tris does not save Will, who she kills in self defense while he is under the serum’s influence. Will’s death, in addition to her parents death during the attack, torments Tris for the rest of the series. Tobias’ reason for moving into Dauntless on the other hand is far more personal. Tobias Eaton’s father Marcus was the leader of Abnegation and therefore the leader of the city, though a selfless man to the rest of the city, within his home, he was abusive to his son Tobias and his wife Evelyn. Eventually, the terror that his father brought him at home led to Tobias’ choosing to move to Dauntless to get away from his father, though he has a fear of his father throughout the series, and is traumatized by his experiences at home.

In the beginning of Allegiant, Evelyn Johnson, Tobias’s mother rules the city with an iron grip. A rebel group called the Allegiant forms against her with two goals, sending people outside the city and overthrowing the factionless regime. Tris and Tobias join up with this organization and are sent outside the city there they meet the founders of the city, beginning a chain of events that form a riveting conclusion to the Divergent series.

Allegiant (and the rest of the Divergent series) are best compared to The Hunger Games series. Both series have the genre of dystopian, which is a genre in which a society in the future has one all-encompassing problem. In both series’ the protagonist’s are adolescents from troubled backgrounds or victims of severe misfortune and must fight against their government or a controlling organization. Another similarity is that both are in large part about teens fighting for their lives against oppression. Even the antagonists are similar: The Capitol for The Hunger Games and Erudite/ the Factionless for Allegiant.

By the end of Allegiant I was almost in tears; the story is emotional at times and the ending is very touching. In my honest opinion, though not as suspenseful as the books that preceded it, Allegiant is an incredibly exciting and well-written book and a satisfying close to a great series.