Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I was very disappointed in this book - and not just for the kneejerk reason that everyone else is discussing. I thought that the entire book was a letdown. I felt that there are actually pretty significant character continuity issues, storyline flaws, and a serious issue with the dual point of view when the voices are the same. Overall the book was much slower than the other two. It had less action that Divergent, the exact same couple drama between Tris and Four as Insurgent, and nothing redeeming on its own. This review contains spoilers. ********************* First, the big one: Yes, like everyone else, I hated the decision to kill Tris. But for me, it's not just because Tris died. It's more how and WHY the decision was to kill her. I feel like Veronica Roth felt that the only way she could show that Tris was selfless was to kill her off - which isn't true. To me, it felt like The Matrix where they tried to fit Neo as the modern day Jesus Christ. Tris is so special that the death serum doesn't work on her! The only person in the world who is like that. Then she is murdered by David because he wants the system on the way that it was. And she sacrificed herself to save the world! How selfless! (Except was it really, when it was because she didn't want her brother to die because she felt he was doing it for the wrong reasons so she would feel guilty. Doesn't her feelings - not wanting to feel guilty - make it selfish?) It was just too contrived. I know that Roth is a Christian, but I never felt that it dictated her writing until this book. Second, let's talk character continuity. EVELYN spent years neglecting her son, proved to be power hungry after creating her factionless army to strike back against the faction system, but choose to give all that up after being emotionally blackmailed by Tobias? That seemed super contrived and not at all in character. She never showed any humanity in Insurgent or Allegiant before the end. Her choice simply was not believable for the character. MARCUS is another power hungry character who, when presented with an option to give up his power, said, "no, I'm the leader" and Joanna said, "no, you're not and I'm going to tell everyone" and then he just folded and went off into the sunset? The man who was built up as a power hungry monster for three books would not have done that without more resistance. Or force. Or violence. PETER has shown no remorse for anything he's done for 3 books (which includes attaching people while sleeping, trying to kill Tris, turning on his Faction, etc.) but at the end he's so full of remorse that he chooses to take the memory serum and forget, in the hope that he would change? Not *once* had we seen even glimpses of remorse from him, so the total 180 degree remorse is totally out of character. No one changes 180 degrees in a matter of pages. You'd expect to see glimpses prior, so that the big change isn't completely out in left field. And even TRIS turns from someone with a strong sense of right and wrong to someone for whom the ends justify the means? Tris in Divergent would have said that wiping anyone's memory is morally wrong. Tris in Alligiant says wiping memories of those in her world are wrong, but in the government world is ok? And that's not character growth, because it's the opposite direction; it's lack of continuity. Third, if you are going to have dual points-of-view, you have to make sure that the storytellers sound different. Tris and Tobias have too similar a voice. Their voices were almost identical. It's frustrating to not realize who is talking because they have the same voice. Several times, I had to keep going back to see whose viewpoint I was on. (Something you never had to do for Jodi Picoult, who employs that tactic.) I get why you had to have Tobias' storytelling (since she was killing off Tris, someone had to finish the book) but you need distinct voice if you do that. Fail on Veronica Roth's part. Fourth, I felt this book (more than the others) had significant storyline flaws. The biggest to me is that they had already established that the Chicago Bureau was just ONE of several in the United States. Which means that just modifying the memories of the Chicago Bureau would do NOTHING because the experiment is still going on in other cities. And let's be honest, all the Government would do is send new people - with their memories - to Chicago to restore order and continue the experiment. When leaders are assassinated, the government goes on with new leaders. And the little offhand comment about Peter at the end - wiping his memory didn't really change who he was and what he thought b/c the rougher parts came out again - would be true of the Chicago Bureau anyway. And as a total aside, people at the Bureau watching everyone's lives play out on TV - isn't that a little Hunger Games ripoff? And the ending, everyone is friends with Caleb? I don't see it. They hated him since he worked with Jeanne. People wanted him to sacrifice himself, he let Tris do it (no matter how it played out), Tris does, and they are ok with Calab? That makes no sense whatsoever. And this book takes place at least 200 years in the future (I calculated 8 generations by 25 years). The U.S. is apparently in shambles. The west is wild. And yet, no other country has conquered the U.S.? Unlikely. She appears to be going for realism with Tris's death, but disregards it with other issues. We'd have been better with a no-name government. And we know that Tobias is not Divergent, and we know that he got Abnegation. Meaning that Tobias was Abnegation and selfless. Yet to prove that he wasn't genetically damaged, he is willing to hook up with people he doesn't even know for revenge, against Tris's comments? That's incredibly selfish. When he did it in Insurgent, the idea was that it was because it was his mother. Yet this time there is no reasonable explanation why he would be do something like that - which goes against his Abnegation selflessness that he was meant to be. Finally, Tris's mother. First, she just gets dropped off in Dauntless at age 15, and NO ONE notices? They re-did *everyone's* memory? (And apparently not that well, since in Insurgent, Tris was identified as second generation by the simulation). Second, even at the end of Divergent, when her mother knew that she was going to sacrifice herself for Tris, she is *still* telling lies to Tris? Who she knows is Divergent so possibly in danger going forward? NO MOTHER WOULD SO THAT. That may bother e more than anything else in the book. If her mother was trying to save the Divergent, the minute you know (or even suspect) that your daughter is Divergent, you save your child. (And similarly, why didn't Amar ever try to save Tobias if he knew Tobias was Divergent - even if he was wrong about that). And did her mother know about Divergents b/c she was one (as she told Tris), or because she was from outside and was saving them (so yet another lie she told Tris at the end of her life)?