Allegiant (Divergent, #3) in The Not-So Austen Bookclub

Sep 27, 2013 Miss Clark rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: the-bog, futuristic-and-or-dystopian

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. 1.5 stars

By the time I had reached the end of Insurgent, I had very low expectations for this one. All of which were essentially met.

I was never impressed by Four/Tobias and Tris/Beatrice and their relationship. Which was problematic at the best of times and unhealthy most of the rest.

The entire genetic purity/cleansing made sense in that I could totally see it happening, but it was not explained all that well and the plight of these individuals was academic at best since we don't have time to 1.5 stars

By the time I had reached the end of Insurgent, I had very low expectations for this one. All of which were essentially met.

I was never impressed by Four/Tobias and Tris/Beatrice and their relationship. Which was problematic at the best of times and unhealthy most of the rest.

The entire genetic purity/cleansing made sense in that I could totally see it happening, but it was not explained all that well and the plight of these individuals was academic at best since we don't have time to grow to care about the greater population and their woes. Not that we really grew to care about the others, but I digress. Basically, they knew, as we do, that certain traits - like criminal behavior and alcoholism - are linked to certain genes and so they tried to purify the race and remove those genes. This of course led to even worse problems. Only those who had refused the treatments remained "genetically pure" and they have a bunch of wars and then start trying to fix what went wrong, all the while looking at those who were genetically manipulated as impure and lesser than they. It was so absurd, but of course the government would assume that they could "improve" the population by manipulating their genes only to discover - surprise! - that causes even worse problems. Of course, there is no real solution, either, to these issues. At best, they have solved only the immediate threat of their friends and family being brainwashed/given amnesia.

Although I did not like Tris by this point, she is a character that grows and changes throughout the course of the series and I appreciate that. The way that her journey ends is one that is wholly fitting to her growth and a culmination of her struggle to be who she desired to be: fearless, brave, selfless and giving. What better end could Tris have achieved? A Happily-Ever-After with Four? How well do you think those two would have dealt with one another? I understand those who were genuinely upset by her ending. I know had I been more emotionally invested that I would have been a bit outraged that I followed Tris through three books only to see her die! But I was fine with it and given my distance personally can see why her story ends as it did.

I think of my father ... engaging in a lifelong struggle against his own nature, and ultimately fulfilling it. A man warring with himself, just as I war with myself. From our viewpoint, that internal war doesn't seem like a product of genetic damage - it seems completely, purely human.

The sexual content in this book is fairly limited; there are several make-out scenes and a mostly "off-screen" sex scene with Tobias and Tris that was really unncessary. You have been forewarned. ...more

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