Note: The review itself does not contain actual spoilers, but the feel of it and the graphics & media might spoil it for you quite a bit. Please don’t read it if you haven’t read the book yet.
To say that this book is my favourite in the series is an understatement. It took my breath away, I loved every single word of it and so when the ending came it broke me to pieces. I read the last pages with tears in the eyes.
I’ve had a love & hate relationship with this series, enjoying the first book, not so much the second one, but Allegiant for me was by far the most exquisite.
This was the month of surprisingly beautiful endings (in a way or another) – best series endings that left my heart aching all over.
This was the month of letting so, but how can I, when I got to love these characters so much?
This was the month of big surprises – the ones that made sense, as amazing or mind-blowing or complicated as they were.
The title seems to be perfect, as Veronica Roth defines “Allegiant” as “one who is loyal or faithful to a particular cause or person“, and this tells a lot about this story and the main character.
I’ve lost a piece of myself reading this story, a piece that I won’t ever get back – but am I happy about it? Yes I am. Because loving something as much as I love this series now is worth everything – even the heartbreak. And you don’t know the feeling I get when I look back and I realise that even though maybe I didn’t like some stuff in the series while I read them, by the ending they were all only pieces in a puzzle so big and great I just can’t put into words how in love I am with it as a whole.
This book made me think a bit: not to let pride in front of my happiness, to enjoy every moment because I might never know if I’ll get another chance, to forgive and forget the bad things and focus more in the future.
It’s sad really, I keep thinking of Tris and Four, of the missed chances and the moments ruined by fights and mistrust. There were so many moments lost by pride and anger and, you know, they had the right to be hurt but they didn’t have the right to be mean to each other. I get it: that’s the whole point here, but still, it’s so very sad.
During this book I started to reconnect with both Tris and Four, to understand their insecurities, to see the broken pieces in their souls. They were by no means perfect (even though Tris thought so highly of herself and, after all the stupid things she did in the previous books, it rubbed me the wrong way to watch her being right at all times in Allegiant and throw this in the face of everyone who ever made mistakes). They had the past to press on their shoulders, the uncertainty of the future to scare them and the madness of a present that was nothing like they hoped it would be.
As a side note, I think that there might have been way too many rebellions in this series… yep, too many. But somehow I still liked it, because Allegiant was in this way filled with action and the characters had to make decisions at all times and the outcome was different and leading to new places (physically or emotionally) – I liked that.
It aches all over my heart. Letting go of this story felt like losing someone (real), but the taste is bittersweet – I kept thinking about this story, about this book and -like with Champion- I couldn’t see a better way for it to end. (And yeah, that might not be a good example for waaaay too many reasons, there’s no actual comparison between the books (or the endings, as they are as different as they can even be), it’s just this feeling of ‘rightness’, of closure of sorts, like things were meant to happen in such way. And don’t kill me if you didn’t feel the same, this is simply how I feel).
Anyways, I don’t want to spoil it or not too much, many people will read ‘about‘ this book before reading ‘it‘ and they won’t be able to feel the same emotions, which is a shame. I would erase it from my mind and read it again for the first time if I could. I am aware that many of you didn’t love Allegiant as much as I did, but that’s beside the point, as with the good and the not-so-good I did enjoy this book, a lot even, and this makes me very happy.
This being said.. Happy midnight reading!
Note: The Romanian version of the review can be found here.
Aw, I loved your review. I cried the whole last few chapters of Allegiant and reading your review made my heart ache all over again. But I enjoyed this series very much, and Allegiant was my favorite of the three!
Same here.
Is there such thing as bitter-sweet sadness? Because this is how I feel for some reason 😉
🙁 I just finished it about 3 hours ago. And even though I got it spoiled, I still loved it to pieces. That ending was cruel and for a moment I think she deserves better, but I also think it was perfect.
I have so many feelings right now!! but yeah, I loved it. And I am broken.
(I was thinking about reading Champion next because of your review, but I’ll better wait… my poor heart!)
I am happy to hear that you liked it too (so many people complained about it). Too bad you got it spoiled though, the emotions are stronger when you go into it blindly. As for Champion, the comparison is weak, maybe I shouldn’t have said anything about it. I read it after Allegiant and Legend series is really one of my very top favs. It might also break your heart, but it’s worth it 😉
I really like your review because it’s heartfelt and emotional and I can totally see where you’re coming from.
I have to admit that I didn’t like Four in this book. I didn’t mind his wounds and weaknesses but it just didn’t feel like Four to me at all and that drastic character shift bothered me.
But I agree that it ended really well – or really appropriately.
Yeah, it was strange because in the other 2 books Four was the strong one, the smart one, and there was some sort of a switch of personality in here. Maybe the divergence thingy made him change and not see things clearly, I don’t know, I was too busy trying to understand why was Tris always right, LOL.
But I didn’t like this story any less because of that.
The ending of Allegiant got ruined for me already, but I’m still dying to read it. I finished Insurgent this morning and all I can think about from me knowing the end of Allegiant and what will happen now after Insurgent is what chances will they get to take as a couple before it all falls apart. I don’t know about anyone else but I’ve been dying to read about more “Fourtris” moments. As soon as I get my hands on that book I know I’ll have a hard time putting it down!
Their relationship is complicated because they let many things come between them, but they love each other and you can see that through the story. I still have this bitter-sweet feeling thinking of it, there is still this ache lingering at the edge of my memories *sigh* I hope you’ll enjoy the book just as much 😉