Allegiant- Ruby

Summary

Allegiant is the third book in the Divergent series. DIvergents are people with the special ability of displaying more than one attributes valued in the world of Divergent. The main character, Tris is a divergent. Caleb is her brother, Tobias is her boyfriend, and Christina and Cara are her friends.  Throughout the series their government gets more and more unstable and when Allegiant starts Tobias’s mother, Evelyn is in charge and is trying to solidify her power.

Allegiant starts off a few days after the last book in the series, Insurgent, ends. Tris, Cara, and Christina are in a holding cell after having exposed a video instructing the divergents to leave their civilization and go beyond the walls that surround it. Several days later Tobias, Tris, Cara, Christina, Caleb, and a few other divergents decide to do just that. They are eventually picked up by employees of a place called The Bureau, where they are taken. At The Bureau they discover that the city they once lived in was called the “Chicago project”, a place that they sent people with genetically damaged genes to heal over generations. Divergents, were just people whose genes had healed, so it was safe for them to leave the project. While The Bureau initially seems innocent, they soon discover that not everything is good and true. Outside The Bureau genetically damaged people (GDs) are highly impoverished and discriminated against, while in The Bureau GDs are treated unfairly with unequal rights and job opportunities. 

Meanwhile, violence is about to erupt in the Chicago project. Leading the opposing sides are Tobias’s parents. Evelyn and her army, against Tobias’s father Marcus, and his army. Bureau officials plan to reset the memories of everyone in the project. Tris, Tobias, and the others who made it to The Bureau hatch a plan to stop this from happening. Tobias and a few others go to the project to stop the war, and get some close family members out. Tris and Caleb stay at The Bureau to release the memory serum (the same one that was to be used on the Chicago project) into The Bureau to wipe the memories of Bureau officials. Tobias goes to see his mom, but instead of slipping her the memory serum like they planned, he gives her a choice. Come be a part of his life again, or keep fighting in the war. She chooses to be with him and they avoid bloodshed.  Tris takes Caleb to the room where he will release the serum, but at the last moment decides to go into the room herself and release the serum for him because she is afraid he’ll die if he goes. She succeeds but is shot several times in the back by David, The Bureau leader. Tris dies and the book ends with a short epilogue from the perspective of Tobias.

Connection

The problems between GDs and GPs (genetically pure people) remind me a lot of segregation and racism in the real world. In the world of Allegiant the justice system is very biased towards GPs. For example, a GP can harm a GD and get away with it but if a GD harms a GP then they are either sent to jail or have their memories wiped. GDs are also considered to be almost less human then GPs. They are thought of to be more expendable and not able to do the same jobs that a GP could do.
Recommendations

Fans of other mainstream dystopian future books such as The Hunger Games, The Giver, The Maze Runner, etc. will love the Divergent series. People who would like to expand their vocabulary, or are looking for a challenge will also appreciate this book because Veronica Roth writes with a very advanced vocabulary. It is a good idea to keep a dictionary nearby when reading Allegiant. People who read this book should be able to handle violence in literature as the characters are placed in many dangerous situations throughout the series. If you can handle that I highly recommend this series to you.