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'Allegiant' ending inspires some angry fan reaction

'Allegiant,' the third book in the 'Divergent' trilogy by Veronica Roth, pleased some fans but has outraged others.

By Molly Driscoll , Staff Writer

Industry watchers were already guessing that sales of 鈥淎llegiant,鈥 the third and final installment of Veronica Roth鈥檚 dystopian trilogy, would be big.

And it turns out that 鈥淎llegiant鈥 gave its publisher, HarperCollins, its biggest first-day sales numbers ever, selling 455,000 copies in all formats all over the world, according to Publishers Weekly.

The novel had impressive pre-sales numbers and anticipation was running high before the book鈥檚 release, with some stores planning midnight celebrations.

But now that the book鈥檚 been out for a few days, some of its readers are expressing intense displeasure with the way that the story wraps up. You鈥檒l get no spoilers from us, but apparently the ending is rather controversial.聽

Some fans took to Twitter to express their happiness or displeasure with the book. There were those, like Laura Burris, who seemed quite satisfied with the finale.

鈥#Allegiant. Completed. Heartbroken. Numb. Amazed. @VeronicaRoth is a goddess,鈥 she wrote.

But for others it was a different story. Twitter user Jirah Catungal tweeting, 鈥淚 want to cry [because] of Allegiant but I feel numb,鈥 while Izzy Lightwood tweeted that "THE PAIN OF ALLEGIANT FEELS LIKE AN OPEN WOUND SPRINKLED WITH SALT OIL AND ALCOHOL."

In fact, so many angry readers vented their feelings into cyberspace that the site Flavorwire wrote an article titled 鈥淩eader Reactions to 鈥楢llegiant鈥 Are an Online Fandom Horror Story鈥 (spoilers are included) which examines the book鈥檚 negative Amazon reviews.

Apparently some fans decided not to read the book based on what they heard. Hypable writer Marama Whyte pleaded with them to think again in a piece titled 鈥淒on鈥檛 be put off by 鈥楢llegiant鈥 spoilers: Why you should still read the book.鈥澛

鈥淚t isn鈥檛 fair to reduce the entire story of Allegiant to one single event, whatever that event may be,鈥 Whyte wrote. 鈥淭hat is the problem with Allegiant spoilers. They are given as a snippet of information, without context or explanation鈥. Other people seem to be forgetting that, as an author, Roth doesn鈥檛 owe it to them to wrap up her story the way that they would wish. After all, this is her story, and her series. Really, we鈥檙e just lucky that she decided to share it with us in the first place.鈥

Roth answered the fan response via Twitter.聽

鈥淗ere is all I'm going to say: strong reader reactions, whether negative or positive, are completely fine with me,鈥 she tweeted, following that with 鈥淧hysical threats are NOT fine with me, but we all know that already鈥 and 鈥淚 will talk about Allegiant more when the tour is done. For now, read, react, talk.鈥澛

According to the website BiblioFiend, as referenced in Roth鈥檚 tweet, some angry fans have threatening the author with violence.

鈥淚t is incredibly unfortunate that people would resort to such claims against someone who has shared such a beautiful thing with the world,鈥 the website wrote.