Book Review: Reached by Ally Condie

Book: Reached by Ally Condie
Genre: YA Dystopian
Rating: ★★★☆☆
For: Fun and Support Local Authors
From: bought at launch party

It took me awhile to get into this one. It may have been, perhaps, the crazy time of year I was trying to read it in. And once the holidays were over and I could concentrate on it, things went much much better.

In this the third and final book of the Matched trilogy, we find our three main characters, Cassia, Xander and Ky, all in different places trying to deal with a plague that has taken over the Society. Each one gets a turn narrating, which is fun, but you have to pay attention to the chapter headings so as not to get mixed up!

Ky is piloting ships that are dropping supplies into the affected areas, Xander is right in the midst of things doctoring the "still" (infected people) and Cassia is sorting, which I never quite understood but I think it means computer work trying to find information to better help the situation.

Well, the situation which at first is controlled gets extremely out of control and then our three heroes finally end up together to try and find a cure. Once this happened, the book went much faster for me and I found myself waiting anxiously to see what they would figure out.

As with all of Ally's Matched books, I was especially struck with the poetry element. They are so beautifully written! But sadly, sometimes I felt like I lost the plot in the midst of the beautiful writing. Does that makes sense at all? That's why, for me anyway, it took some concentration to read it.

But in the end, it was okay because I felt the intensity of those final pages. And I'm feeling quite satisfied with the ending. As always with a love triangle, it's hard to see who gets chosen and who gets "left" but this one worked out just fine, for me anyway. Also, with this book, it's not just the love triangle that's the issue, but the state of the society as a whole, and I feel like things were wrapped up to a great conclusion.

Have you read it yet? What did you think about the end of the trilogy?

I look forward to what Ally has for us next!

Bottom line: I enjoyed it, especially the second half.

Other Reviews:

I am totally all for reading about plagues. Luckily, Reached totally delivers on it’s promise of disease. We get to see the beginnings of the plague, how immunity is developed and then also how the disease mutates, much like in real life. From Good Books and Good Wine

...loose ends are tied up, surprises are in store, people die (c’mon, people HAD to die) and Ally Condie does a beautiful job of taking care of the characters we came to love in Matched and Crossed. From Anna Reads

I loved, loved, loved reading Xander's narrative. And I love seeing the characters through his eyes. From Becky's Book Reviews

The book is more about Xander than anything else really. Xander, Cassia and their friendship. But more just Xander. From Bloody Bookaholic