When I read Divergent I could understand why the books have gained such a following. But I also knew that while I enjoyed both the characters and the writing, I didn’t love the plot. No, actually it wasn’t the plot, it was the gimmick that was the crux of the plot. No… Awww heck. I try not to ever give much for details on a book but I give up. It was the serum induced sleepwalking, zombie soldier thing. I’m just not into mass serum induced invasions. There wasn’t necessarily anything wrong with it, it’s just not my thing. Maybe you’re cool with sleepwalking soldiers, and in that case I think you’ll probably really enjoy the book.

When I read Insurgent I had come to terms with the whole, we inject people with serums to get them to do crazy stuff, thing and thoroughly enjoyed the story.

Then I read Allegiant and found I was wearing cranky pants.

Because, suddenly, in the third book, we’ve introduced chapters from a second point of view. So, already I feel like perhaps this is a precursor to a plot twist that wasn’t thought out very well. Why now? Why wasn’t this alternate view scattered throughout the series? Then I read more and became glad it was contained in the last book. Because adding it in was irritating and odd but what was awful was that the two characters didn’t have distinct “voices.”

I love switching between points of view in a novel. I love “hearing” the inner workings of a new mind, getting new views, more insights. This was more like getting new eyes on the same mind. To the point where if there wasn’t enough character dialogue with names involved, I’d have to recheck who was narrating.  After flying through the first two books in days, I found this maddening to the point that it took me over a week to read the third book!

And the plot, which I had respected but hadn’t loved (it’s just that serum thing…), got… loose? Thin? Stretched? Simplified?

The world blossomed in Allegiant! The last book opened up back stories, future possibilities, more characters and character insights, it pushed characters to their limits and it filled in blanks from the first books but, judging by the first two books, I don’t think the author did it the justice that she could have.

It was disappointing.

Would I recommend it? No! Because the last one was so annoying it ruined everything!

Wait.

Hold on.

Let me just give these cranky pants back to my brother (they are obviously his) and think on this some more.

…

I think that if you’re ok with serum induced, sleepwalking, zombie soldiers you should for sure read the first two. I really liked the characters and watching what happened to them as their world pushed them. And then, because you can’t just leave it hanging, you should take a big breath, brace yourself, focus on the people and how they react under pressure and read the last one.

But don’t say I didn’t warn you.