Allegiant

Allegiant, written by New York Times Bestselling author Veronica Roth, is the third and final novel in the Divergent trilogy. Allegiant was published in 2013 by Harper Collins and is a dystopian novel with a romance element written for a young adult audience. Roth tells the story from the perspective of Tris Prior and Tobias Eaton. Allegiant is the first novel where Roth uses a different narrator, as she wrote both Divergent and Insurgent from only Tris’s perspective.

Lionsgate adapted the Divergent series into three major motion films, releasing the first and second films in 2014 and 2015, respectively. Lionsgate released the film adaptation of Allegiant in 2016, and producers planned a fourth film but canceled it due to Allegiant’s lack of box-office success.

Plot Summary

The setting is a post-apocalyptic Chicago. The city has been split into five factions: The selfless belong to Abnegation; the brave belong to Dauntless; the intelligent belong to Erudite; the honest belong to Candor; and the peacemakers belong to Amity. Each 16 year old undergoes an aptitude test to determine his or her future faction; those whose tests determine that they have an aptitude for more than one faction are deemed Divergent, and therefore dangerous to the order of the society. The Divergent are hunted and killed. In addition, those who fail their factions’ initiation process are exiled to live, or starve, among the factionless. The protagonist, Beatrice Prior, or Tris, is one such Divergent, having chosen Dauntless from among her three aptitudes, Tris is initiated into her new faction after leaving her home and family amongst the Abnegation in book one of the series, Divergent.

Following a faction war in the second book of the series, Insurgent, Allegiant opens as Tris Prior and her friends Christina and Cara await trial in a prison cell at Erudite Headquarters for siding with the Allegiant in the war between the two factions. Tris’s boyfriend, Tobias Eaton, comes to visit her and warns her of the upcoming trial and how his mother, Evelyn Johnson, plans to use truth serum during the interrogation. Ultimately, Tris lies to Evelyn, despite the serum, and earns her release.

Evelyn tells Tobias about the Allegiant rebellion and that she will get them under her control. There is a factionless demonstration on Michigan Avenue outside of Erudite Headquarters, which leaves two dead. Tris, Tobias, and Christina meet with the Allegiant, and together they make a plan to leave the city and restore the faction system. Tobias returns to the prison cells and rescues Tris’s brother, Caleb, from execution for working with Jeanine Matthews. The group leaving Chicago catches the train and leaves the city.

The group reaches the Bureau of Genetic Welfare compound. They meet David, the leader of the Bureau, who tells them that their city is part of a genetic experiment to weed out “damaged genes;” the Divergents are considered “genetically pure.” Erudite had misconstrued the Divergents’ difference and had begun hunting them against the will of the Bureau. All the characters struggle to accept the idea that their lives have been a lie. When Tris and Tobias have their genes tested, Matthew confirms that Tris is Divergent, but he says Tobias is not. As a result, he questions Tobias’s identity.

As Tobias struggles with who he is, he agrees to help Nita overthrow the Bureau because they discriminate against the genetically damaged. At the same time, Tobias learns that Evelyn has exiled his father, Marcus.

Tris also learns new information about her parents. By reading Natalie’s journals, Tris learns that her mother volunteered to enter the Chicago experiment to stop Jeanine’s killing of the Divergents.

Nita takes Tobias to the fringe to see how the genetically damaged live and to convince him that they must stop Bureau. While in the fringe, he meets some other rebel group members and tells them he will help them. When he returns, Tobias tells Tris about meeting with Nita. Tris doesn’t trust Nita but agrees to go with Tobias to their next meeting. Nita plans to steal the Bureau’s memory serum, their greatest weapon. Tris doesn’t believe Nita and thinks she wants to do something worse; Tris tries to convince Tobias that Nita is lying, but he thinks jealousy clouds Tris’s judgment.

During a conversation, Tris tells Matthew about Nita’s plan, but Matthew knows that she’s actually after the death serum and wants to kill numerous government officials. He says they have to stop her and tell David. On the way to find David, Tris watches a wall explode next to her friend Uriah, which puts him in a coma. Tris and Matthew find David outside the Weapons Lab, and Nita tries to make him open the door. Tris manages to drag David away while wounding Nita in the process. Guards arrest Tobias for disabling the security system. David is alive but won’t walk for a long time due to gunshot wounds to both legs.

After the attack, David asks Tris to train for a place on his council, and she agrees so she can get to know more about the Bureau and the compound. The group from Chicago begins to plan a new attack on the Bureau. David sends Tris to the fringe, and she is shocked by the living conditions there. Back at the compound, Tobias watches the Allegiant attack the factionless in Chicago and knows the city will destroy itself.

Tris attends a council meeting with David and learns that the Bureau will reset Chicago in 48 hours to prevent the government from shutting the experiment down. The Bureau has reset the city multiple times in the past using the memory serum, and this news shocks Tris. The group also learns that the doctors will take Uriah off life support because he shows no brain activity. The group sends a few people into Chicago to tell Uriah’s family about his situation and to inoculate Uriah’s and Christina’s families against the memory serum. Tobias also decides to reset one of his parents, as he knows that Chicago will never know peace if his parents continue to fight.

Tobias, Christina, and Peter return to Chicago to carry out their plan. Tobias learns that Peter wants to reset himself because he doesn’t like how cruel he is. Peter and Tobias find Evelyn, and instead of resetting her, Tobias convinces her to make peace with Marcus and the Allegiant. Evelyn meets with Marcus and Johana, the Allegiant leaders, and offers peace. She will give up her weapons and leave the city if they allow the citizens to elect new leaders and let the citizens leave the city if they choose. Marcus refuses these terms, but Johana accepts them anyway. Tobias then goes to Uriah’s family, tells them of his role in his accident, and takes them back to the compound with the rest of his friends.

While the Chicago group carries out their part of the mission, Tris, Caleb, and Matthew try to reset the compound. Caleb previously volunteered to go into the Weapons Lab, which is protected by death serum, to set off the memory serum. Ultimately, Tris won’t allow him to sacrifice himself, so she goes into the lab because she knows her Divergence will protect her. When Tris enters the Weapons Lab, David is waiting for her. He kills her but not before she sets off the memory serum, successfully resetting the leaders of the Bureau.

When he returns to the compound, Tobias learns of Tris’s death, and the doctors turn off the machines keeping Uriah alive. Tobias returns to his childhood home, intending to reset himself with memory serum. Christina follows him to his house and convinces him not to take the coward’s way out and to be the man Tris helped him become. Two and a half years later, Tobias and his friends take the train to the Dauntless zip line, and Tobias spreads Tris’s ashes as he flies through the air, as Tris loved to do.