Allegiant
reads as a book about teenagers, for teenagers, that leaves little room for the
adult mind. While Divergent
was an above average fun read, this text picks up right where Insurgent
left off, and in doing so, continues to show an impulsive, teenage disregard
for human life. People die, for seemingly no reason, and Tris remains
bulletproof (that is until the bitter, drawn out end). Tris has always been a
martyr to a cause that lacks clear definition beyond her self-anointed path to
righteousness. Author Veronica Roth casts her as a Christ like character, but does
so overtly and without a true purpose to her cause.
Of course her death should not be a surprise, for while the first
two texts came entirely from her point of view, we now enter the equally
impulsive mind of Four. While he thinks of Tris a frequent basis, his character
is quite flat. He is idealistic, angry at both of his parents, and despite all
the bullets flying around him, he lacks the typically teenage preoccupation
with sex. Any intuitive and able minded reader can predict the future—Tris will
die and Four will have to describe the end. Perhaps Roth could have waited
until the end to shift the point of view—did we really need the Tobias and Evelyn
reunion show—but what is done is done.
That said, the two find themselves in the Fringe, in an
airport just outside of Chicago, and they find that the US Government still
exists and is running the city as an experiment to a group of genetically damaged
people. This damage is loosely explained at best, but gives the individuals a predisposition
to violence. The ruling class in this endless war is genetically pure (but with
a more hidden inclination towards violence), and Tris and Four, not even in
their twenties are the catalysts for yet another revolution, the third at this
point, yet more death and destruction, as they try to impose their will on
society.
Always a poor man’s Hunger
Games, this text ends predictably, painfully, and thankfully.
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