Allegiant (Divergent, #3)

by Veronica Roth

I CAN’T WALK these hallways without remembering the days I spent as a prisoner here, barefoot, pain pulsing inside me every time I moved.

I wasn’t always set on writing in Tobias’s POV, and the reason I ultimately decided to do it is not what you might think, if you’ve already read the rest of Allegiant. The reason is because the world of the book had become a lot bigger than in the first two installments, and I wanted to show more than one view of it. Throughout the book, Tris occupies a more privileged position than Tobias, so she goes places that Tobias is unable—or unwilling—to go…and vice versa. He shows us parts of this world that we need to see. Because of this, Tris shows herself to be a more idealistic character than Tobias, partly because she just is, and partly because the people she encounters in Allegiant treat her more kindly than they do Tobias. We need them both to give us a complete picture. Tobias’s voice was difficult to nail down. He sounds a lot like Tris, which is partly because writing in a completely different voice was a challenge for me, and partly because he is a lot like Tris. They had the same upbringing, made the same faction choice, and are similarly straightforward in their communication. One thing I tried to do was to make Tobias’s voice more descriptive, bordering on poetic, at times. He has always had a softer side—softer than Tris, to be sure.