Allegiant Review

As the series intones, one choice can change everything and six weeks after the reveal of the Edith Prior interview, it’s clear that the city will descend into war thanks to Evelyn’s shortsighted controlling tyranny. So Tris and her friends have to make a choice when they are recruited by the shadowy Allegient group that seeks to overthrow Evelyn whose idea of freedom without factions is no freedom at all.

It’s an easy choice for most of them, even Tobias who gets an unexpected amount of spotlight with half of the book from his POV as he realizes Evelyn’s sort of controlling selfishness can be just as bad as his father, Marcus.

Allegient seeks to fulfill the original goal of the society, send some outside of the wall and the other half stay within to overthrow the factionless. And what Tris and her friends find on the other side completely changes their world.

The group is brought under the wing of the Bureau of Genetics that reveal Chicago had been a societal experiement this whole time, trying to weed out and heal the genetical damaged after the Purity Wars with behavioral modification in the form of factions. They had been observed this whole time, and the factions that made them special highlight their inherited damage and the divergents that were so feared, they’re actually genetically pure. Everything’s flipped and some are taking the news harder than others.

Tobias is drawn into the political mess within the Bureau that seems like a technological haven from the mess they left behind in Chicago. Apparently, they’ve traded one corrupt government for another and with the new revelations of his true genes, Tobias feels obligated to take up the fight against the corruption.

Tris finds herself against the Bureau for different reasons when she realizes her parents’ pasts are entangled in this experiment, they hid more than she realized and the Bureau’s uncaring nature towards its experimental subjects fuels her feelings of vengence.

Roth creates a compelling end to the trilogy as she prods deeper into the idea of nature vs nurture, experiments vs humanity, and the true nature of sacrifice. While the discussions are compelling sometimes they’re so abstract that it feels vague even though the themes are universal. Luckily, the conflict it springs between Tobias and Tris allows for readers to get invested as the two’s different perspective on radicalism and acceptable losses lead to them truly questioning their relationship and what they mean to each other.

As for the Bureau, the fringe and other sights of postapocolyptic America, Roth does a grand job in depicting its unique terrain, jargon and the confusion of the faction group finding a world so full of choices. It’s a combination of Mad Max and Big Brother adding to the sense of dirty secrets behind stainless steel. However, it also feels a bit boring compared to the action inside Chicago with the warring factions which the group sees from the cameras. That’s exciting but it feels as disconnected as the group does from the former home as they get more settled in this place.

Now spoilers for the ending under the cut.

I knew Tris was going to die. That’s like the first major spoiler I got from the series that sets itself apart from other YA dystopians and very controversial. Even knowing it was going to happen, Roth managed to make me think I might have heard wrong, it was so unexpected when it did. Yet it also made sense as Roth forshadowed it from the beginning I believe. Tris has always made reckless choices but they also came from thinking of the greater good over just herself. With all her choices it seemed right that it would lead up to this moment.

It was also a good choice in giving Tobias a spotlight as I realize how much more complex as a brooding love interest but intensely vulnerable, a bit obsessive, lost and scared about his true nature. Yet thanks to Tris and making mistakes on his own, he comes to realize what bravery and choice really mean. That scene with Evelyn in the end was heartrendering.

It was a decent conclusion to the series with the emotional highpoints making up for the broad themes and separation from the faction war because Roth was trying to make it more than just battles and corruption but to get to the core of human nature of which she admits that you can never find it. Humans are messy and complicated but it’s our choices that define who we can be more than any inheritated traits or nurture or other factors.