My Journey in Writing

Now that I've had time to process Allegiant, I have altered my review to reflect that. I'm going to try and keep it spoiler-free, but that's difficult, so if you haven't read it yet, you might want to stop reading here.
There were definitely problems with the story. A lot of it didn't gel. With the revelations of what was going on outside the fence, everything felt a bit flat. It took away the magic of the Divergent world. I was expecting it to go in that kind of direction, but I think there were alternatives that would have worked better. With this version, I was saying to myself. "Really? That's it?" The reason for all of it seemed a bit weak.
There was also a bit of repetition in the writing style. I got sick of being told what people's feet sounded like against the floor, for instance. Also, I found it difficult constantly switching between Tris' and Tobias' points of view. It made it hard to follow at times, especially if I had to leave the book to participate in Real Life for a while. I would come back and have trouble working out whose head I was in. I understand why the changes in point of view were necessary, but it was still annoying and I don't think it was well done.
I was worried in the first half of the book that Tris' and Tobias' relationship was just going to be more of the same from the other book, with them constantly at odds with each other. Thankfully, that wasn't the case throughout the whole book. I also felt that the make out scenes between them were forced into the story, almost as if VR was saying to herself, 'Well, they've been fighting for a bit, so I'd better have them kiss or everyone is going to be disappointed.' None of those scenes seemed organic extensions of the story to me.
And now for the ending. There's no doubt it upset me, but at the same time I had to acknowledge that Tris' selfless act was consistent with her personality. Although, having said that, the death itself did not seem a natural conclusion to the scene. There were too many things that felt manipulated in order for it to go that way. The conclusion that scene reached felt forced. I must confess that, almost to the last moment, I was hoping for a 'Bobby Ewing' situation, and I think that was a reflection of the fact that the scene's ending did not seem to me to be a true-to-established-facts conclusion. As as result, I don't think I can bring myself to read any of the Divergent series again.