Allegiant by Veronica Roth

I have been a fan of  the wildly popular Divergent series since the first book, and I am sad to say that the third book is a disappointment. Allegiant by Veronica Roth takes all the potential of its predecessors and throws it away. I won't go into too much detail in terms of plot in case you haven't read the other books, but suffice to say Tris, Four, and their friends finally get outside the fence surrounding their city and discover what is on the other side.

The final book in the trilogy does not live up to promise of the first two, as it takes the central conflict of the previous novels and makes it completely unimportant. The plot stalls out halfway through the book, so that both the characters and the readers are stuck in one place. In addition, the alternating viewpoints between Tris and Four did not add to the experience, since their voices are so similar as to be completely indistinguishable. There were more than a few times that I had to skip back to the start of the chapter to figure out who was narrating. As I really enjoyed the first two books, I am disappointed in the overblown melodrama  that is the conclusion of this trilogy. Read this novel if you really must find out what happens to Tris and Four, but otherwise - skip it.

Shannon Wood, Adult Services Librarian