Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Allegiant - Veronica Roth

Date Started - November 9, 2013
Date Finished - November 11, 2013

Did you really not see the ending coming? I mean, I saw how people got so crazy about it, but didn't read any of the comments since I was just getting into the series. But now that I finished it, I mean, did you really not see the ending coming?!

SPOILER ALERT AFTER THE LINK. DO NOT CLICK IF YOU DO NOT WANT THE ENDING RUINED.

So Tris dies, and I, at least, thought it was very obvious that was going to happen. First, because her character was written in a way where there really wasn't any other way it could end. It reminded me of Lost in that way. You remember, that amazing TV show that everyone eviscerated over the ending? Well, Jack Shephard = Tris.

Second thought - this entire series reminded me of the M. Night Shyamalan movie "The Village". Haven't seen it? Wiki summary here. Anyway, it's basically about a group of people who decide to remove themselves from the outside world and live as though it's a different time (with no technology, etc.). They convince everyone in the village that they must stay within the boundary otherwise the monsters will get them (monsters who are actually of their own making - they're literally like puppets or something). In any case, people are kept inside a city by a group of people who have information that they don't. Sound familiar?

This is not to say that I didn't like Allegiant; I did, and I thought it was a fitting conclusion to the story. BUT I did think it got a bit complicated. There were a lot of characters to keep track of and a lot of new information introduced all of a sudden. So there was a Purity War between the genetically damaged (GD) and those with "pure" genes? And the GD are still expendable and considered "less" than the genetically pure. And the group who escaped from Chicago now has to stop the plan to erase the entire city's memories? This is a lot to take in. Also - the alternating perspectives of Tris and Four - I get it, we need Four to be a narrator so that we have someone left to speak after Tris dies. But, I didn't love Four's perspective. I just thought that Tris was a more interesting narrator, and character in general. I looked forward to her chapters much more than Four's.

I thought the epilogue was a good way to end the series. We get some kind of closure, hearing where people are two years after the events transpired. It isn't a perfect ending, but then life rarely gives you those, and in that way this is probably a more honest ending than you typically get - hence, the outrage.

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