Saturday, December 28, 2013

November Book Club: Allegiant by Veronica Roth

Since one of our very first book club selections was Divergent we have always had a special place in our hearts for this trilogy. We reviewed Insurgent last year and decided to round off the trilogy with our November book club.

Tris, Four, and her friends have risked everything and lost much. Now they hold some of the truth and it's only fed their desire to know more. And the answers they want only exist outside. But what they find there will shake them all to the core and raise even more questions about who they are and where they belong. As Tris and Four seek for the truth and try to grapple with how things have changed their perceptions of each other can they fight their way to a happy ending or will everything crumble around them?

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Allegiant was certainly a doozy of a trilogy ender and we've decided to depart from our usual spoiler free reviews because the ending is just too big not to talk about. So if you don't want to be spoiled about the end of the book, then read no further!

Grammy T: The ending was awful! I mean it was good, in that it made sense for her character and for ending the book, but it was just awful. I can't believe it happened. It was an interesting ending to the series.


Jenn N: I thought this was a fantastic but very surprising and shocking conclusion to the trilogy. I loved learning more about the experiment and the aftermath. I often worry that our society's apparent obsession with perfectionism will one day lead to a crazy dystopia like the one Roth has created in this trilogy. So, the horrors Tris and her friends face is terrifyingly possible to me. What really shocked me was - spoiler alert - that Tris dies!! I thought this was a really bold move but true to the realism that I love in this series. Tris sacrificed herself to save her friends, family, and society as a whole. This was an act that was totally true to her Dauntless nature and Abnegation roots.

Rebecca T: This book got off on a bit of a rocky start for me. The writing felt choppier and less polished and things were a little scattered. It did improve as the book progressed and the ending blew me away. I did like learning more about the world and the reasoning behind the factions. As well as learning about the other experiments going on across the country! I wanted more about the reasons behind everything, but I understand that there's only so much that can fit into one book. I thought the choice to alternate between Four and Tris was a good one and it played out fairly well. I just wish the two of them had spent less time fighting and more time together. I felt a little cheated out of their relationship, particularly considering the end. The end. It was actually my favorite part of the book. It was totally true to Tris' personality and the journey she'd gone through to get there. There was literally no other way for her to end. She is not designed to live in this world and her sacrifice, to me, was more fitting than any other ending to the book. I've heard people complain about the book having too many unnecessary deaths, but I thought Roth handled this aspect well, building in the appropriate amount of chaos and destruction to stay true to the turmoil of the society. Overall I was satisfied with this conclusion to the trilogy.

So what did you think? Love it? Hate it? Mixed feelings?

This month we're reading Lauren DeStefano's new book Perfect Ruin for a totally different spin on utopian/dystopian societies. So read along and chime in on our next book club post!

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