Allegiant (Divergent, #3) in ♥ Nothing Better Than Reading!! ♥

Feb 14, 2016 Melinda Brasher rated it it was ok

More accurate rating: 2+

The whole premise of Allegiant felt forced. The prejudice and inequality between the genetically pure and the genetically damaged would have been a great, probing issue to explore in its own book, but as a continuation of the series, it felt just like a way to continue the faction struggles and then the factionless vs faction struggles. So it felt heavy-handed. It also pretty much nullified the importance of anything that had gone on in the previous two books, like when a More accurate rating: 2+

The whole premise of Allegiant felt forced. The prejudice and inequality between the genetically pure and the genetically damaged would have been a great, probing issue to explore in its own book, but as a continuation of the series, it felt just like a way to continue the faction struggles and then the factionless vs faction struggles. So it felt heavy-handed. It also pretty much nullified the importance of anything that had gone on in the previous two books, like when a story ends with characters waking up and realizing it was all a dream.

I don't really know much about genetics, but some of the science here seemed either wrong or poorly explained. And the serums…I didn't like them in the first two books all that much, because they felt like the answer to everything, and a rather magic answer versus a technological answer. But here it got even worse: I mean, the memory serum… SPOILER ALERT…they're talking about completely wiping all memories but retaining all skills, which on a basic level is sound. But what about scientific knowledge? Is that a basic skill or a memory of learning? Wouldn't these scientists forget a lot of their learned knowledge and all of their research? They talked so casually about retraining people and giving them new opinions, but that would be a MAJOR undertaking when we're talking about a handful of people retraining hundreds. And that's not even taking into account the moral dilemma of why it's right when you're the one doing it and wrong when others are the ones doing it, which could have been explored a lot more deeply. MORE SPOILERS: And this is a somewhat insignificant plot hole, but why on earth did Peter decide to go with Four back into the city so he could try (and likely fail) to steal the memory serum from Four, who's supposedly a good fighter? If he wanted to erase all his memories, why didn't he just stay in the Bureau compound and lose his memories there like all the rest? I think it was merely so that another action of another character toward the end wouldn't come from nowhere. This is a classic case of characters acting to serve the plot, not acting how they would actually act. END SPOILERS

I also didn't like the switching points of view. I often enjoy alternating or multiple points of view, but not when they're first person and in nearly identical voice. I was constantly forgetting I was in Four's POV. I understood eventually why Roth did it, but it just didn't work for me.

I thought Four's character backslid, maybe because of the POV issue. I also wasn't terribly invested in some of the other characters—or even sure who they were—which was part of my problem with Insurgent too.

However, the writing was good when in Tris's POV, and there were some glimmers of important ethical issues. Some of the debates and action bits were very engaging. And I admired certain controversial parts of the ending.
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Jul 03, 2013 Ivy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: published-in-2013, checked-out-from-library

Liked this book. Was not expecting the death of a certain character though. What did you all think of the Divergent movie?

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Mar 01, 2014 Kristy Brown rated it really liked it

3.5. This was a hard one for me to rate. I loved books one and two. The pace on this book was a little slower for me mainly toward the middle. Also on occasion I lost which pov we were viewing as both voices sounded similar. I wasn't happy with the outcome without spoiling it for anyone else, but I think the author stayed true to her characters. Tris would of made those choices because that is exactly who she was. I feel sad, deflated after reading this, partly for the way it ended and those las ...more

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