I loved this book.

I thought that it was an incredibly fitting ending to a mind blowing series.

I don't even know where to start.

I guess with the POV change: I was EXTREMELY apprehensive about switching POVs between Tris and Tobias. I had been disappointed by Requiem - another final book in a trilogy that had a sudden POV change. However, Roth handled it extremely well and I was actually interested in what was going on in Tobias mind (whereas with Requiem I just frankly didn't care about Hana). It was great to see arguments and reasonings from both Tris and Tobias rather than just Tris. And it was nice to see that just because she was the protagonist didn't mean she was right all the time/knew everything.

Really from here on I just can't avoid spoilers. Sorry boutcha, but do not read on if you don't want the entire series, the rest of your life, all of your dreams...spoiled.

Life outside the wall: I was also inititally apprehensive about what the group found out from the Bureau. So everything that had happened in Chicago in the first 2 books didn't matter? Seriously? But what Roth did with Allegiant was show us that it DID matter. And just because someone - even someone in a position of power - tells you your life and choices mean nothing in the overall scheme of things, that doesn't mean it's true. Your life matters because you are a human being with thoughts and choices and emotions. This kind of goes along with the theme of inevitability in TFIOS - your life matters to the people who care about you and the legacy (however small) that you leave behind.
I really became more invested in the GD vs GP plotline the farther into the book I got. It wasn't completely separate from the themes from the first 2 in the series - that some people are better/more important than others. It was just on a much larger scale, which didn't even seem possible. I understand how some people could have been upset with Allegiant because it was just so different from the first two - a lot like Mockingjay. (And there I go again just comparing books - I can't help it!). It was different because much of it took place outside the city, and all of the excitement and world we had become attached to was inside the walls, within the problems of the factions. Allegiant threw those factions and all of their problems not just out the window, but off of a cliff and into a churning river. Suddenly Roth wants us as readers to care about a society that is too much like our own. It's in the US, there's airplanes and technology, there's not the escapist feeling that we sometimes felt in books 1 and 2 (although as John Green so aptly put it in his brief twitter reviews - why read Divergent as an escapist? Why would we want to choose that world over our own?). I think we just all wanted to be Dauntless. All that being said, I liked Allegiant's setting and plot for all of these reasons. Roth created this world - the US that was outside Chicago was there the whole time, we just didn't want to care about it and now we're forced to.

Other characters: I loved Christina, and Uriah (sigh). Hated Peter obviously. I am very intrigued by both Peter and Marcus because I think what those two characters show are the real truths of genetic damage. Clearly there are instances where genetic damage creates a human being so despicable and incapable of doing the right thing that it is a huge problem, but the bureau has generalized that all GD people are like Peter and Marcus, when they clearly are not. These books are SO AMAZING because now that we know about genetic damage vs. genetic purity we can go back and really analyze characters. We can figure out that some people are awful just because they truly cannot help it. And Roth took the time to show us each character's true nature before the series ended. I loved Tobias and Evelyn's happily ever after. I did feel that their reunion at the end was a little quick - really all it took was Tobias asking his mom to act like his mom? Is that not what he was wanting before? Hmm. Maybe Evelyn needed to go through the stresses of being in power for her to overcome her pride as Marcus wasn't able to do. Caleb - I wish we had gotten a better explanation for his actions in Insurgent, but maybe that's where his genetic damage comes in to play. He was mentally unable to make decisions informed by love over logic. I wish it had been addressed though. And Tris's revelation about David's love for her mother just felt a little unnecessary. I guess Roth was trying to make David more human, but at that point we just didn't really care and he hadn't been an active participant in the story enough. Tris - I wish we had received more information before the end of the book about why in particular Tris ended up with a set of genes strong enough to break through even a death serum? Was she just destined for greatness? What gave her such power?

And finally, Tris's end. I thought it was beautiful. Oh it was heartbreaking, and rage inducing, and life destroying, but it was also right. It was Tris. We couldn't ask for Tris to not be Tris. People want to know why she had to die even after surviving the death serum? Well, the irony has to be part of it. She showed her strength to conquer even the unconquerable, but then died at the hands of a gun by someone who claimed to love her mother. To be honest, when she and Tobias had their final moment, I predicted that Tobias would die. Mostly because I didn't think it was possible to kill of the protagonist. But then again, I understood at that moment why there was a transition into Tobias's point of view. Now he is the teller of the story. And frankly, he was from the start. He was as much a main character in this series as Tris was, we just weren't for sure until Allegiant. Tris's life burned short and bright, and she died representing everything that she so strongly fought for. I wish people wouldn't be so angry at Roth for Tris's ending. I can totally see how I could have finished the book, been angry that I was so miserable and couldn't stop crying, and just say that Roth is stupid for killing off someone so important to the series in such a mundane way. But NOTHING about Tris's life was mundane! Honestly, what else could we have expected from Tris? That she and Tobias would survive after so many times when they almost didn't and then find a high rise apartment in Chicago (or, alternatively, a little farmhouse in the country) and live happily ever after with 2 kids and a dog? That would be very Clockwork Princess of Roth to do, but it didn't fit the story the way it did in the Infernal Devices. And I even said at the end of my Clockwork Princess review that it was almost so 'too good to be true' that it just didn't feel right.

The end of Allegiant felt right. It felt real.

Am I heartbroken? Will I cry myself to sleep tonight? Yes. Am I blown away by Roth and Allegiant? Yes.

Thank you for such an original, well-written, thoughtful series that filled me with so much longing to be more than I currently am for the people I love and the people in the world who need my help. Tris is an inspiration.