Allegiant and Requiem: A Dystopian Trilogy Roundup

Allegiant

by Veronica Roth

★★★★

Trilogies are tricky. There’s so much pressure put on the final book. With this particular series there was a lot of pressure to explain the entire experiment and the world outside of Chicago. The first two books were heavy on the action, but not on the explanation and so there was a style shift in the final book, which doesn’t always work, but in this one I think it did. Roth still keeps the action level high.

One thing I loved about this book was the emphasis put on grief, both living with it and the guilt that can come with it. Grief affects everyone in different ways because we all cope differently. It makes some people hard, others weak. This book deals heavily with the cycle of abuse and how that affects both the abuser and the abused. I like that despite the chaos of a dystopian society, Roth still looked at the complicated family relationships of the main characters.

“I have only hazy memories of my own grief over my mother, just the feeling that I was separate from everything around me, and this constant sensation from everything around me, and this constant sensation of needing to swallow something. I don’t know what it’s like for other people.”

I also really appreciate how Tris and Tobias’ relationship matures through the series. Both of them start to realize that talking through things is important. You can’t keep secrets. You can’t take your love for granted. They start to understand that true self-sacrifice is not just running blindly into danger.

“I fell in love with him. But I don’t just stay with him by default as if there’s no one else available to me. I stay with him because I choose to, every day that I wake up, every day that we fight or lie to each other or disappoint each other. I choose him over and over again, and he chooses me.”

***SPOILERS***

About the ending… I unfortunately had the ending spoiled for me by the stupid internet about half the way through the book. So I knew what was going to happen and I don’t think there’s any way to avoid having that affect the way I read the book. Knowing Tris was going to die at the end helped the event itself not be as shocking as it was for others. It didn’t feel wrong to me. People die in war and Tris had a tendency to gravitate towards dangerous situations. I really loved Tobias and Tris together, but to me the story was actually more powerful this way. Tris is the one who helped Tobias heal. She showed him that he deserved to be loved and between that and Evelyn’s decision to choose him I think he can possibly lead a healthier and happier life in the long run. I would have loved it if they ended up together, but I like that Tris didn’t rush into danger this time, she sacrificed herself for others out of love, it was the opposite of what she did in Insurgent.

**SPOILERS OVER***

BOTTOM LINE: The trilogy isn’t perfect and I know a lot of people are furious about the ending, but I’m not one of them. The story was interesting, the characters had chemistry and the writing was good. The whole series kept me hooked and I loved that it dealt with deeper issues. I’d recommend it if you enjoy dystopian books, but know going into it that it has got some flaws.

“I don’t belong to Abnegation, or Dauntless, or even the Divergent. I don’t belong to the Bureau or the experiment or the fringe. I belong to the people I love, and they belong to me—they, and the love and loyalty I give them, form my identity far more than any word or group ever could.”

“Sometimes it’s hard to know how to take care of people.”

“He makes the acquisition of knowledge feel like a secret, beautiful thing, and an ancient thing. I feel like, if I read this book, I can reach backward through all the generations of humanity to the very first one, that I can participate in something many times larger and older than myself.”

“That’s what love does, when it’s right – it makes you more than you were, more than you thought you could be.”

If you want to hear Roth’s thoughts on the ending read her post here. I didn’t read it until I finished reading the book and wrote my review. I didn’t want her explanation to affect my initial reaction.

Requiem (Delirium, Book 3)

by Lauren Oliver

★★☆

This was, at best, a weak ending to the trilogy. I enjoyed Delirium and was disappointed in Pandemonium, but I still hoped the final book would redeem the series a bit. No such luck. I felt like the main characters had less personality in this book and the plot meandered between scenes.

The narrative switches back and forth between Lena and Hana’s points of view. I couldn’t care less about Lena’s story. She became even whinier and indecisive with each new chapter. I was just bored to death by the love triangle aspect. It’s so overdone and if you don’t think the people are actually in love than the drama isn’t convincing.

Hana’s story on the other hand was really well done. I never felt too strongly about Hana’s characters before this book, but I really enjoyed her sections this time. She’s been paired with the new mayor of Portland, but she can’t shake a feeling of unease about her pending nuptials.  The tension builds in the Gaslight-style relationship as Hana’s wedding date nears.

BOTTOM LINE: Only read it if you’ve already read the first two books and feel the need to wrap up the series. I’m sad to add this trilogy to the growing pile of cookie-cutter dystopias out there.

My reviews of the other Delirium Books.

Delirium and Pandemonium

Delirium

by Lauren Oliver

★★★★

Lena is a teenage girl living in a dystopian society in the near future. Scientists have found a way to cure the dangerous disease “deliria” and now everything is simple and easy. The downside to this is that deliria is actually means love, so once you are “cured” you no longer feel love for anything. A group of “Invalids” refuse the cure and live on the edges of society, rebelling against the mandatory cure and all it stands for.

Lena’s life begins to change as she nears her 18th birthday and the date for her cure procedure. He best friend Hana and a new boy named Alex start to challenge her world view and she starts to question the truths she has been told her whole life.

The thing I loved about this book is that, just like The Giver, it focuses on how truly being able to feel things affects every aspect of life. It’s a believable premise because anyone who has been in love understands that it can feel like a disease. The anxious feelings, heartbreak, excitement, etc. all of that goes hand-in-hand with the early stages of a sickness and it’s understandable that people might want to eradicate those feelings.

I love that it deals not only with romantic love, but on love of al kinds. People who have had the “cure” aren’t just content to settle into their life with their assigned mate, they lose interest in almost everything. They often no longer enjoy their favorite hobbies. They don’t show affection for their children or pets. They let all old friendship fall away, etc. Yes, they are spared from feeling depression or pain, but all of the joy is gone as well.  

This isn’t just a love story, though that’s a crucial aspect of the book. It’s more about how love is what gives you a passion for life. It’s the think that makes friendships for wonderful and children so important. Being able to love something means you can hear and song and your hold world stops. The pain is just as important as the joy and a life without either isn’t worth living.

BOTTOM LINE: I couldn’t put this book down. Sure, there are bits that are predictable and the characters feel a bit hollow sometimes, but the book did such great of a job of holding my attention that I’m wasn’t too worried about the writing being perfect. I will definitely be reading the rest of this series.

“If pneumonia felt this good I’d stand out in the snow in winter with bare feet and no coat on, or march into the hospital and kiss pneumonia patients.”

 “Love: a single word, a wispy thing, a word no bigger or longer than an edge. That’s what it is: an edge; a razor. It draws up through the center of your life, cutting everything in two. Before and after. The rest of the world falls away on either side.”

Pandemonium

by Lauren Oliver

★★★

Following on the heels on Lana’s escape into the Wilds at the end of Delirium we learn what happened to her in that new world. She’s still struggling to change the whole way she thinks about her civilization. Some of the things she’s been told her entire life are deeply ingrained in her psyche and that doesn’t disappear overnight. We meet a new cast of characters as Lana is integrated into a society of Invalids and learns how to survive in that new world.

I was less impressed by Oliver’s second installment of the Delirium trilogy. I really liked some of the elements, learning about the people who lived underground, etc., but other aspects fell flat.

**SPOILERS**

Discovering Alex was still alive at the end of the book made the whole thing feel a lot like a Hunger Games knock off. He is now the scarred boy who sacrifices himself to save a girl and then is angry with her when they’re reunited; it felt like a weaker version of Katniss and Peeta’s story.

I still enjoyed parts of it, but I wasn’t a big fan of the Julian and Lana love story. It felt like a retelling of Delirium only this time Lana took on the same role Alex had in the first book. It was she who had to tell Julian that she was an Invalid. She had to open his eyes to the “real world” and then she had to save him from getting the cure/being executed. It was almost the exact same story in so many ways.

**SPOILERS OVER**

BOTTOM LINE: Though this one was a bit disappointing, I have high hopes for the final book in the trilogy, Requiem, out in next week (March 5.) I think that Oliver has the opportunity to wrap up the series in a powerful way and I hope she doesn’t just fall back on the forced love triangle to fuel the bulk of the story.

Oliver also released two novellas connected to the Delirium series.

Hana

by Lauren Oliver

★★★

We learn Hana’s side of what happened during the time period in Delirium. She is rebelling while Lana tries to play by the rules. There’s an interesting twist at the end, but overall I would have been more interested to know what happened to Hana after Lana escaped to the Wilds.  The story fills in a few holes in Delirium, but it’s lacking in too many ways.

Annabel

by Lauren Oliver

★★★★

This is the story of Lana’s mother, Annabel, and her eventual imprisonment. I loved learning how she fell in love with Lana’s father. Even if their story was a bit far-fetched, I still liked it. It gave a great depth to the character we only glimpse in Delirium and Pandemonium. I hope Annabel plays a bigger role in the final book.