Allegiant by Veronica Roth (third book in the Divergent series)
** MAJOR SPOILERS ***
This was one of the most disappointing third installments of a trilogy I've read so far. Two things stand out as ruining the book for me right from the start:
1.) In the first two books, we were inside the head of Tris the entire time; but for some unknown reason (which we find out much later was probably so that the author could kill off Tris and still continue the book to its conclusion) we begin to hear the story alternating between Tris and Tobias. This would be weird but o.k., except for the fact that there seemed to be no difference in their "voices", so I kept getting confused as to whose perspective each chapter was from and would have to go back and check at the beginning of each chapter (the author shouldn't really have to put the name of the person speaking at the beginning of each chapter, even though it is courtesy - but in this case it really was necessary).
2.) The second reason is really what killed the whole series for me. Basically, the whole point of the book made zero scientific sense. I mean, not even a little. First the human race experimented with genetic modifications; that went terribly wrong and caused a big war between genetically "damaged" people and genetically "pure" people that ruined the Earth (the "Purity war"). OK, so that is weird, but I can maybe suspend disbelief on that one. But then, here's the solution they came up with: build these cities as experiments to wait for genetic purity to be born through generations (??) and those people would be identifiable because they could resist the various mind serums (like Tris). Wait, what? Oh, and most of these experiment cities failed. There are just so many things WRONG with this plot, I got kind of mad at the beginning of the book and nearly stopped reading. But after having enjoyed the first two books so much, I pushed forward. Unfortunately, Ms. Roth just distracted us with more uprisings and soap-opera style relationship interactions between Tris and Tobias. Here are a few of the ridiculous suppositions I just could not swallow:
a.) Um, if they know how to manipulate the genes in the first place, why don't they just manipulate them back to how they were?
b.) All genes have mutations, some good, some not so good, don't see how you can pin a certain modification (like a mutation) to the cause of evil and war in society (really???? I feel like we're talking Nazi stuff here, maybe that is the buried message Ms. Roth is trying for, a warning against genocide?)
c.) Um, why didn't they just test everyone with a blood test to look for "pure" genes? Why did they have to watch them on cameras in fake experiment cities letting them be tortured by fear serums, memory setting serums, etc. This makes zero sense.
d.) So Tobias is not genetically pure but somehow he can still resist the serums. Um, ok, what? Doesn't that invalidate the entire experiment?
And on and on and on, I can't stand to even write about it anymore!
So, warning for big Divergent fans, this book may not be what you are expecting!
