Reached (Matched #3) by Ally Condie - Ashley's Review

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Title: Reached
Author: Ally Condie
Year Published: 2012

My Pre-Reading
Paul's Review
Paul's Pre-Reading

Synopsis: After leaving Society to desperately seek The Rising, and each other, Cassia and Ky have found what they were looking for, but at the cost of losing each other yet again. Cassia is assigned undercover in Central city, Ky outside the borders, an airship pilot with Indie. Xander is a medic, with a secret. All too soon, everything shifts again.

-------------------------

Review: I'm not going to lie, I have had the worst time with this series. I liked the plot, the world, and the concept, and I even like Xander and Ky and their stories... I just cannot stand Cassia. I tried for three books to like her and relate to her, and I just wanted to punch her every time one of her chapters came up. I have no idea why, and it makes me kind of sad, because I know this is a good series. This is also an excellent conclusion to this series, so whenever I could forget about Cassia I really thought that the way the story is wrapped up is excellently done.

Condie's world is interesting and exciting and mysterious and yet somehow so familiar. I think she does an excellent job taking her small world of the Society and expanding it into the Outers and the stone villages and everything else beyond that without spending too much time listing details. Everything is given as a memory or an event or a conversation, and it helps move the story along as well as introducing readers to new aspects of this complex world. I think this book had the best world building in it, since this is where Cassia, Xander, and Ky learn more about the world than they've ever known before.

I kind of feel like most of the relationships are underdeveloped, and the only one who really grasps anything about what love should be like is Xander. He loves Cassia, not only because she's his Match, but because they were best friends in childhood and he admires her strength and courage and then was lucky enough to get matched with her! But at the same time, he comes to realize that maybe first love isn't everything. And I admire him for that, and for his journey to get to that point. It wasn't an easy one, especially in this book, but he handles it very well. I also really wish that Ky and Indie had ended up together, because Indie is totally morel likable than Cassia. Cassia is just so annoying and only does things because she loves Ky... and she just comes off as so needy that it drives me insane. 

I was also really excited that a lot of this book was from Xander's viewpoint, since we hadn't heard much from him before. It was interesting to get inside the head of a character who has been there from the beginning, but mostly on the sideline. I also loved the way that everything from the previous two books is tied together in this one. Oh, and I also enjoyed how the colors on the covers make total sense now that I've finished the series. I don't want to spoil anything, but it's a really neat parallel. 

As much as I dislike Cassia, I still enjoyed this book and this series. I would definitely recommend Reached to anyone who has read any of the Matched series, because you won't want to miss this ending! I would also recommend the series to fans of The Hunger Games, Delirium, Divergent, and all those other dystopian books out there. It's really a well-written dystopian series. I would rate this book a 4/5.

--Ashley