Divergent Series: Allegiant Review

The trilogy of Divergent, Insurgent, and Allegiant are by Veronica Roth and it was supposed to be the new Hunger Games. The premise is a dystopian society set in Chicago. It is a society divided into factions, each representing a core value including selflessness, knowledge, honesty, bravery, and peace. Factions are meant to keep societal order.  You are born into a faction, and each individual takes a test that indicates an aptitude for a faction. This maybe the one you were born into or another faction. During the Choosing Ceremony, you can choose to remain in the faction you were born into or the one that the test indicates would be a good fit.  The story centers around a heroine, Tris who is Divergent, or who has an aptitude for multiple factions. This is not taken lightly by the society's leaders, as it threatens the system.

Warning: SPOILER ALERT FROM THIS POINT ON!!
Tris eventually chooses Dauntless, the faction that values bravery. She therefore leaves her family to join this faction. Here, she learns to fight, handle weapons, and to fall in love with her instructor, Four.  The first two books weave their growing and complicated love throughout. They battle leaders that wish to exert control over the people of the society, and lose many loved ones along the way. Sure, their cat and mouse love story was at times irritating, but you can't help but root for them to stay together.

In Allegiant, we discover that their society is a government experiment to fix so-called genetic deficiencies. Another revolution against the government takes place. I, like many readers have felt very very disappointed by this last book. I read preliminary reviews that the author should have given the readers what they want so I pretty much knew that she wasn't going to give us a happy ending.  Even still, as I read the ending of Tris sacrificing herself to end government control, it left a bitter taste in my mouth.  I read Veronica Roth's philosophical rationale for the ending. Tris fully embodied selflessness which is what her parent tried to instill in her. In fact, it also seems that Veronica was attempting to make parallels between the books' societies  and society in real life. However you want to intellectualize it, analyze it, and  argue that life is messy and we must cope with it, many people read these books to essentially feel hope, believe in love, and that can change can occur.

Now, Tris' sacrifice did result in societal change in many respects, but then why does it feel so unsatisfying when it is all said and done? Oh right, it is because the author killed the main character and left the male lead to live as a grief-stricken bachelor. I don't feel like many readers that state it is a waste of time to read the book because a trilogy means you read three books for a conclusion. However, the conclusion bothered me so much that I felt the need to write about it lol