Veronica Roth's Allegiant: A Book Review

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.  

Veronica Roth's Insurgent: A Book Review

Insurgent, Veronica Roth’s second offering of the post-apocalyptic Chicago run by factions picks up moments after the cliffhanger ending of Divergent. The problem with the text, almost from inception, is that the series attempts to mimic the recent success of texts in the genre (think Hunger Games here) by becoming a trilogy. While the rise of Tris and the secret of her Divergent nature kept the pages turning in the first installment, barely anything keeps you moving through this one. She comes out, reveals herself, and is suddenly not that scary as others stand at her side and display the same characteristics.

Tris is hurt—she was shot during the simulation attack on Abnegation—and Roth reminds us of this fact nearly every page, along with the fact that she is divergent, that Erudite wants divergents, wants power, wants control, and has a secret. The Erudites are intelligent, they wear glasses for style, the Amenity are happy, etc. We are reminded of these facts as often as Roth needs to fill up a few extra pages to keep the publisher happy.

Yet, as we read along, the answers are strung out.  Roth, for whatever reason, takes an age to give them to you. As we bother Marcus again and again, asking the deposed city leader what his secret information is, one cannot help but think about Bella fawning over Edward in the Twilight series. We wait, the conceit is about making the book long more than tight knit. Thus Tris visits every facet of the city—holing up with each faction (including her own and the factionless) as she works to unwittingly instill societal change at the tender age of sixteen. As messiah, she is destined to save us all, but we don’t know why and after a while I stop caring why.

She reminds us of her love for Tobias, and despite having reflected on the hot and heavy moments many times in the first installment, Roth digs into the romance novel cheese with each and every teenage snog session. Perhaps this is what the teenage mind wants, but even when Tris selflessly sacrifices herself to Erudite, one knows Tobias will appear, her savior will lay a wet one on her, and she will drop a gun do to PTSD style trauma while uttering complaints about shoulder pain. At times one feels like we are watching reruns of Dawson’s Creek on the WB instead of reading an attempt at literature as Roth returns to these common plot motifs time and time again, and in the end a predictable socialist revolution takes place—the poor and the oppressed, the workers, the factionless take over and lead the city further down the chaotic rabbit hole. Already you can see that the end is near for Tris, she is doomed to die, to suffer at her young age, a martyr to the idea that humans can be more than overly selfish creates through divergence.  

Veronica Roth’s Divergent: A Book Review

A quick post here on another in a string of young adult novels I have tackled, this time being Veronica Roth’s Divergent. The modern members of this genre seems to carry a similar style whether dealing with the end of the world in a mythological sense or a dystopian future. Life is at a terminus point: things as we know it could end through revolution and the central character and narrator stands at the center of the conflict. As often noted, Divergent follows in the footsteps of The Hunger Games, presenting a future we dread, systems of inequality, and the basis of our future tied to an unwitting heroine only looking to find her own way in life.

Divergent presents Tris, a member of one of five factions set up to break people into sects of likeminded individuals, thus preventing war and allowing for the purification of society in a future marred by war. Taking place in a dilapidated version of Chicago, the text follows Tris from the day in which she takes an aptitude test to determine whether she should remain a member of Abnegation, a faction of selfless individuals who is thus responsible for governing society, or move onto one of the other four factions. Predictably, Tris is different. Her test is inconclusive, yielding aptitude results that show that she fits multiple factions. For no legitimate reason, this result, henceforth known as Divergent, is seen as dangerous to society and thus becomes the secret of the text. Why this fact exists one does not know, and it is here that Roth misses many an opportunity to expand upon this novel.

Tris, who defects to the fearless army faction known as the Dauntless, spends the remainder of the novel surviving. First she must become a warrior while hiding her true self. Yet, because Divergents are dangerous, Tris also works to understand who and what she is and why she might be dangerous to the foundations of society. At the same time, her old faction, one she is obligated to ignore, is being persecuted and attacked by the Erudite. Through these attacks, Tris logically feels tension, and as most teens do, tries to place herself in the middle of said tension. Finally, Tris falls in love with an authority figure, one who conveniently possess the very same secret she does: Divergence. She rises from relative obscurity and finishes at the top of her class despite attacks from fellow initiates. But the vacation ends in a battle between factions as the system crashes down around them.

This landscape, while interesting has many flaws. Tris’ rise, determination, and importance feels forced. Roth wants her to do these things, writes her down these roads, but fails to justify the ascent. Likewise, while she is aiming to sell more books, the text itself just ends. A cliffhanger is fine, but the one here, one without any semblance of resolution can leave the reader unsatisfied and looking for more.