Book #23: Allegiant by Veronica Roth

This is the third book in the Divergent trilogy. I had to wait a few weeks to get this book from the library, and I'm glad that I made my way through it and that I read the entire trilogy. It's hard to regret reading a series that goes by SO fast and yet is so fun at the same time. While I was in the middle of these books, I regretted putting the book down every time I had to, and just kept wanting to go back to it whenever I got the chance. But now that I'm done with them, I don't think I'll feel the need to revisit them (like I do The Hunger Games and Harry Potter). Here's why: although I got really sucked into the books, I never really liked any of the characters. The plot was compelling (although copycat-ish off of HG), but none of the characters. Tris was the Katniss character, but she was not believable to me at all, even after reading all three books. I don't know if we didn't get into her head enough, or if the impression I had of her at the beginning of being just a quiet, boring girl kind of just stuck even as she transformed into being the leader of her group and doing all these dangerous things throughout the series (of course, because this wouldn't be a dystopian trilogy without that), but I never connected with Tris at all. I never got into her relationship with Tobias--they just kind of randomly got together (it felt like) and then had lots of fights and lots of kissing and never actually got to know each other (or let us get to know them or care about them as characters or as a couple).

I liked this book a lot, though, because it totally explained all of the seeming dumb-ness of the plot from the first two books (like, why are they living in this stupid faction society anyways?) and provided a grander context for the whole society. I also thought it was neat to have multiple narrators in this book (not just Tris, but also Tobias) and I was impressed by the plot twist Roth threw in at the end (no spoilers, I won't ruin it for anyone).