Review: Allegiant by Veronica Roth

Name: Allegiant
Author: Veronica Roth
Publisher: Harper Collins
Date published: 2014
Rating: 4/5
Spoiler warning: Moderate

The faction-based society that Tris Prior once believed in is shattered - fractured by violence and power struggles and scarred by loss and betrayal. So when offered a chance to explore the world past the limits she's known, Tris is ready. Perhaps beyond the fence, she and Tobias will find a simple new life together, free from complicated lies, tangled loyalties, and painful memories.

But Tris's new reality is even more alarming than the one she left behind. Old discoveries are quickly rendered meaningliess. Explosive new truths change the hearts of those she loves. And once again, Tris must battle to comprehend to complexities of human nature - and of herself - while facing impossible choices about courage, allegiance, sacrifice, and love.

- From Goodreads.

I really liked the plot of Allegiant, in fact I adored it, with all its different layers of secrets and plans and discoveries of what was on the outside of the city. However, I didn't like the characters as much as I liked the plot. I liked Tris, of course, but I don't think she's one of my favourite characters, and I think I liked some of the side characters more than I liked the two main ones, Tris and Tobias. I definitely didn't like like Tobias as much as I liked Tris, and so I couldn't relate to her affection for him as much as I should have been able to.
There were other emotions and actions of the characters that I couldn't understand, like jealousy. I always find jealousy very annoying in characters because it usually feels so stupid (I could probably be more eloquent about that, but I think it's just one of those things that annoys me too much to be eloquent about). It implies distrust and possessiveness and I very much dislike those two things.
The dual viewpoint felt strange at the beginning of the book as the other two books in the series didn't use it, but I suppose that, although it took some getting used to, it made sense towards the end. Speaking of which, I think I'm glad it ended the way it did, with society building itself towards something better (although perhaps I'm not so happy with certain character deaths, there were some pretty upsetting ones, but I won't say anymore about that because this is entering dangerous spoiler territory).
A very good point about this book was that I didn't know what was going to happen and I couldn't predict what was going to happen either which kept it exciting and made the ending more of a shock (and that's definitely where I'll end this because I am on the brink of spoiling everything and I don't want to do that).

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Review: Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Name: Insurgent
Author: Veronica Roth
Publisher: Harper Collins
Date published: 2012
Rating: 4/5

One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

- From Goodreads.

Despite any flaws Insurgent may have had (and it really didn't have many), I found I couldn't stop reading it. I just kept turning the pages because I was so interested in it. It was pretty addictive and I ended up reading it all in one day.
I thought it was a good sequel to and a good continuation of the first book in the series, and it wasn't too dull, like some middle books are in trilogies, with not much going on, only filling the space between the first and third books. This wasn't like that, not too much anyway, and it had everything I liked about the first book, the fascinating world and characters, the imagination behind it, and it managed to keep going at the same pace.
It left me really looking forward to reading the next, and final, book to find out how it all ends. The Divergent series is a very exciting one, that can't be denied.

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Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

Name: Divergent
Author: Veronica Roth
Publisher: Harper Collins
Date published: 2012
Rating: 4/5
Spoiler warning: Moderate

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

- From Goodreads.

At the beginning of Divergent, I couldn't really relate to the Dauntless at all, I couldn't understand them, and then I realised that I didn't really like the way they and some of the other factions worked. Then I realised that maybe that was how I was supposed to feel, because, while some members of Dauntless understood the real values of the faction ("I believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another"), they were then punished for that, and it was clearly a corrupt faction, just as Erudite was discovered to be, and maybe even just as the whole faction system was. I thought it was clever how you came to realise these facts over time while reading the book.
The story included some really interesting ideas, of the future, of a dystopian society, with the factions, the relationships between them, down to the characters themselves. All of these ideas were well thought out and consequently quite interesting. It was clear that a lot of thought and effort had gone into creating the world of Divergent, and that left me intrigued to know more about it.

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