Review: ALLEGIANT by Veronica Roth

The review is here for the winner of my latest Pick My Next Book poll: Allegiant by Veronica Roth:

So if you had asked me my opinion of this series before I read the final installment in this trilogy I would have said that it was good, not great. Unrealistic, and for a dystopian novel that’s a little annoying and drives down the quality of the story for me. After Allegiant, however, I will no longer say that. This book kicked the entire series up several notches for me and it really ended on a high note. Since lately most of the series’ finales I’ve been reading lately have been disappointing (looking at you, Requiem) it was encouraging that not all final books have to be terrible and can actually make the series better instead of leaving me wishing it didn’t exist.

Veronica Roth is a great writer and she tackles heavy heavy subjects in this book. What does forgiveness look like? Is it possible to forgive someone of a horrendous betrayal, or do you stuff it down deep inside until you can’t feel it anymore? Or is that what forgiveness actually is? When do you realize that forgiveness for you is turning away and saying goodbye to someone?

Every major character in Allegiant deals with this in some form. Forgiving each other, forgiving their oppressors, forgiving betrayals and secrets and lies. While revenge was the major theme of Divergent and Insurgent, redemption is the subject of Allegiant. And Roth tackles all of these questions so well. She’s living proof that the young adult genre doesn’t mean light, fluffy, and easy. It means brand-new and fresh-faced looks at concepts that we spend our entire lives trying to master to become good humans. That sounds serious but I mean it!

Just look at this quote:

How mature and honest is this? Now, some novels don’t write this take on relationships, and certainly don’t all have to, but I surely can’t be the only person who took a piece of this all to heart. Fully forgiving, mending broken things, realism with optimism, geeze. Sometimes this book felt like marriage therapy in dystopian fiction form. (side note: Veronica Roth got married sometime around when Insurgent came out, so presumably when she was drafting this book. Coincidence? Me thinks no.)

And, ahhhhh, how great it is to be able to recommend a series, a full series. I hate having a “but” moment when someone asks me for an opinion. ”Oh, that series is great except for the last one.” Not here! Thank you, Veronica Roth!

Oh, and those last 30 pages? Brutal. I can’t say anything else because of spoilersbut, gosh. If you’ve read it and want to talk about, put a spoiler warning at the beginning of your comment below and dish!

What are some of your favorite series’ finales?

Don’t want to take my word on it? Here are some other Allegiant reviews from around the web: