As stated in the title of this post, it will be riddled with spoilers for all of the books, so be prepared. I finished reading Allegiant about a week ago and just haven't known really what to say. My experience with this series is probably a bit different from most of yours because I started and finished this series in less than a week. It was tricky holding out for so long, but also not too hard. It's sometimes difficult to pick up a book that has gotten so much praise. Regardless, I knew I wanted to read these all at once just like I did with The Hunger Games. So what follows is my review/rant of the Divergent series.
Divergent starts off with Tris in Abnegation, the selfless faction. I don't know how well I would fair there either. I'm pretty selfish when it comes to most things. If someone is being hurt I can intercede, but besides that, it's every man for himself. I assumed that Tris was going to pick Dauntless, there was no real reason for her to stay in Abnegation besides her parents. She's sixteen though, who likes their parents then? What I did not see is her brother switching, although that now makes sense of his cryptic words to Tris the night before. One thing that bothered me in this first book was how long it took Tris to catch on to things. It's like she needs a neon sign flashing that says FOUR LIKES YOU, IDIOT! It seemed to be completely obvious. I realize that sometimes he acted like a dick but you would think she'd catch on to the fact that he was acting. I liked all the action in the first book though. Things were always moving forward which was very befitting of the Dauntless. At no point reading Divergent was I waiting for something to happen. Heck, I didn't even have to read for that long for the title to make sense. Divergent was a really solid book and even though lots of terrible things happen. I think they all were necessary evils.
Favorite Line: "Peter would probably throw a party if I stopped breathing.'
'Well,' he says, ' I would only go if there was cake.'"
Insurgent starts right away where Divergent left off and does not go through the typical, here's what you missed, series beginner so things start off right away. After I finished this book, I couldn't understand why people didn't like it. I think the fact that I started Allegiant right after may have skewed my view a bit. I thought Insurgent was great and didn't suffer the book #2 filler problem. Now though while writing this only a short while later, I'm struggling to come up with what happened Insurgent. I guess nothing as important happens in book 2 but I didn't feel let down, since the pace was still rolling right along. Tris is kind of a pain in the ass, but so is Tobias at this point. Why do they have to keep so many secrets from each other? I liked how just as Tris loses her parents, Tobias starts to gain his parents back. Whether or not he wants his parents back is an entirely different story. It was nice to see that the Factionless made their own Faction and weren't the sad people that they were portrayed as being. This lovely book also contained a big surprise, Caleb the betrayer. I'm really not certain how he got mixed up in everything, but how despicable. Faction before blood I guess.
Favorite Line: "I expect to have nightmares, but I must be too tired, because my mind stays empty."
Then we get to the really interesting part. Tobias and Tris and the gang leave the relative safety of their city in pursuit of the unknown lying outside the gates. How exciting! I was partially disappointed in the outcome of this because, it would have been way cooler if they were the last people on Earth. Although, it would not make for a very good third book. The crew fighting off wild animals as they search the desolate landscape for other humans. Not as exciting as the Truman show experiment. They get swept up into compound life pretty fully. Tobias starts trusting strangers and ignoring Tris (as per usual). Seriously though, why are they so distant from each other all the time. They run the gamut of emotions constantly. I appreciate that they care for each other but they need to open up a line of communication, because it's getting old guys. Tris, stop being so mopey and Tobias, stop trying to be a rebel all the time. We get it, your tough and better than your father. Now stop! Moving on... I don't understand why Uriah has to die. Couldn't by some miracle he come out of it. I was still holding on until his funeral. Then there was the death of Tris. After surviving the death serum she dies from a gunshot. On one hand I was in disbelief, on the other hand it was so fitting though. I thought it was incredibly brave for Veronica to end the series this way. Also, it totally makes sense as to why there were alternating viewpoints in this book. Tris and Tobias had this very interesting relationship. No love triangle and plenty of disagreements. I think they were maybe a bit too disagreeing at times and talking would have helped a lot. I think Tris got too intense to have lived a normal life so it's probably better off that she died. Tobias seemed to be settling down, whereas Tris was getting more and more daring. She would have died young anyway, so it's fitting to have that be the conclusion.
Favorite Line: "'I didn't know that idiocy caused people to just start spontaneously bleeding from the nose.'"
This was a fantastic series and I am very excited to see it become movies. I hope they do a great job with it and that each of the actors fit in the characters well. There are a lot of interesting types of people in these novels and I would like to see them fleshed out in the movies as in the books.
What were your thoughts on this series?
How did you feel about the ending?
So, all in all not a terrible deal. We had our Halloween Party for teens which was pretty fun even though for some reason none of my regular kids came. We played this game we started calling Tape Candy. I spent the morning rolling candy up into packing tape making a nice ball. Then everyone rolled a pair of dice and tried to get doubles. As soon as you got doubles you got to start unwrapping the tape ball as fast as you can and grabbing any candy that you've gotten to. Meanwhile everyone else is trying to roll doubles so that they can take over the tape ball. If you don't think this sounds like fun, wait until you play it. It's a bit addictive! It was a fun time and I'm surprised at how old these teens go trick-or-treating at. There were quite a few high schoolers trick-or-treating, in the rain! So that's how my Halloween went, not too shabby. Finished it off by going home, having dinner and then playing Minecraft. 
