Allegiant -- Veronica Roth

Now that the factions have fallen and the truth about their society has been made known, a small group, including Tris and Tobias, seeks to fulfill the wishes of the originators of the experiment.  This group calls themselves the Allegiant.  And their plan is to defy the leadership of Evelyn Johnson and leave the city, hoping to help those on the outside as they have learned they were meant to do.

Though the plan is successful, and Tris, Tobias, and several others make it outside of the city, what they face turns their world upside down again.  They enter a world of "Genetically Pure" and "Genetically Damaged."  They learn about air travel and other modern things which had been hidden from them in the city.  And they find that they still don't know where the truth lies.  Being in the "real world" forces them to face new life-altering decisions -- and make decisions on behalf of those they left behind.


**Eh...  It was okay.  I mean, I committed to reading it when I continued the series.  But definitely not as fantastic a read.  Which is why it took so long for me to get through it.  I will say I liked some of the "morals" the main characters offer the reader toward the end of the book.  But there are also a lot of other subtle things I didn't like.  So, I'm glad I'm done with it and can move on to something else.  I may or may not read the new one:  FOUR.  Depends on how desperate I am for a book at the time.  But I feel no tie to it.

Insurgent -- Veronica Roth

Seeking safety with the Amity faction, Tris, Tobias, Peter, Caleb, Susan, and Marcus know the time they have there will be short. But before they make their plans to leave and head back into the city, their presence is discovered by the Erudite and the traitor-Dauntless; causing them to flee and seek refuge with the factionless.

There, Tris realizes that being factionless isn't as bad as she was led to believe; for the Factionless are strong in number and unity. And the Factionless leader has big plans for taking down the Erudite and the current factioned society. She seeks out Tobias and invites him to join her cause, telling him to become important to the loyal Dauntless so they will follow him.

Deciding they will need the help of the Candor, Tris and Tobias go to Candor headquarters and are subjected to their truth serum. Their deepest secrets and regrets are revealed, and before long, everyone knows Tris is Divergent. And so is Tobias. The Candor grant the loyal Divergent safety once they know Tris and Tobias were not involved in the simulation massacre of Abnegation. But their safety is short-lived. Because the Erudite and traitor-Dauntless launch an attack on Candor headquarters, injecting many there with a simulation serum which Jeanine can control anytime and for as long as she'd like -- a serum never before known among them. When Jeanine causes some to leap to their deaths with the threat of more if the Divergent don't give themselves up, Tris surrenders herself to Jeanine and her torture. Fully expecting her own demise, Tris learns as much as she can while imprisoned by Jeanine. But what Tris starts to learn is that there is information nobody could ever have imagined. Information that could change their entire world. Information Jeanine will kill over. And once she learns all she can from Tris about the Divergent, Tris will be Jeanine's next target.

*I definitely got sucked into this book and enjoyed it more than the first one. One complaint I have with both is all the childish drama. Tris and Tobias and their over-the-top arguments, etc. I realize it's written from the perspective of teenagers -- and is written for teens as the main audience. But I just get annoyed with how Tris makes huge mountains out of molehills a lot of the time. Otherwise, I enjoy the story and am looking forward to #3.

Divergent -- Veronica Roth

Some time in future Chicago, the day has come for Beatrice Prior and all her 16 year-old friends to make a decision which will change their entire lives: the decision to leave their family and the only way of life they've ever known, or to stay. For Beatrice, the choice has been something over which she struggled. Though her heart yearned to be with her family, she did not feel that she fit in with the way of life of the Abnegations -- those who are selfless. But to choose to leave her family, with the sure knowledge she'd be disowned, was a heart-breaking choice.

Even more troubling than the decision which lays before her are the results of the aptitude test -- the test which determines where she really belongs, even if she chooses otherwise. When her results come back inconclusive, she hears a word she's never heard before: DIVERGENT. It is a word almost whispered. A word warned against. A word she is admonished to keep secret, even from her parents. It is the word which describes Beatrice.

With little help from the aptitude test for decision-making, Beatrice chooses to leave her family and join the Dauntless -- those brave ones who are meant to protect the city from harm. And she changes her name to Tris, a more fitting name, she feels, for a brave fighter.

But all is not as it seems. Because all is not as it once was when the factions were created years before. As Beatrice initiates into the Dauntless faction, she faces violence, cruelty, betrayal. She finds herself singled out and must work constantly to keep her secret safe -- for there is fear associated with her divergence. And when she finds out the truth, she must strive to warn her family whom she loves; because she cannot fully accept the edict "faction before blood," even if it costs her her life.


*I will say that this book was a page-turner for me. I wanted to see how things would pan out. That being said, I found it disturbingly violent for the age group it is intended for and also felt like some of the storyline got rushed toward the end of the novel, thereby making it not as well developed as I think it could have been.