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

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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.

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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

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

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Title: Reached
Author: Ally Condie
Year Published: 2012

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.

Why?: I read and enjoyed the first two books in this series, Matched and Crossed. And so I feel like I should definitely read the third book to find out how the story ends for Cassia, Ky, and Xander!

Expectations: I expect this book to be similar to the first two. Mostly romance in a dystopian society, with Cassia and Ky trying to find each other (again...). I'm hoping we learn more about the society in this one though. And also, what Xander's secret is!

Judging a book by its cover: I'm a huge fan of covers that match the rest of the covers in the series, and this one does an excellent job of that. On Matched, the girl is trapped in a bubble. On Crossed, she's punched a hole in her bubble. And finally, on this cover, she's free of her bubble. I would probably pick this up if I saw it on a shelf somewhere. It's simple, but effective.


--Ashley

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

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My Pre Reading

Title: Reached (Matched #3)
Author: Ally Condie
Year Published: 2012

Review: Although I did enjoy the first two books in this trilogy, I was not expecting to enjoy this third book this much. It was not what I was expecting at all. I expected a story about the revolution to take over the Society. I expected grand battles and for the Society to crumble. What I got was much better. I enjoyed seeing the more behind-the-scenes events and the revolution took a completely different turn. 

When Matched came out, love triangles were at the forefront of the YA genre. In my opinion they were an unnecessary evil. I felt that the love triangle took up so much of Matched. I wanted more world building. Thankfully, as this trilogy completes I am satisfied. The world is fleshed out, although there still are mysteries left. And, the love triangle felt natural and wasn't so dominant in this book. 

Pretty much all the questions you had after reading Matched and Crossed are answered. Some of the answers are not what you expected. It is always disappointing when you read a completed series and feel unsatisfied. In this case, I was satisfied by the answers to all the mysteries I had. Condie did a nice job on revealing them, as well. 

I really enjoyed that this book is from three points of view: Cassia, Ky, and Xander. I liked finally getting to see inside Xander's head.  

The concept and idea of the Pilot was my favorite thing in this book. I love the way Condie wrote when talking about the Pilot and what makes the Pilot the Pilot and what a Pilot is. The Pilot!

Towards the end of this book, there was a lot of color imagery. I enjoyed it, but it seemed slightly repetitive. The colors of green, blue, and red are not only represented on the covers of each of the books in the trilogy, but also the tablets each member of the Society possesses. They are also used to represent the elements to an extent. 

Overall, I was surprised by and really enjoyed this book. If you have read the other two int he series, you definitely need to pick this one up. And if you, like me, were not so excited about them, I hope you enjoy this conclusion as much as I did! I give this book a 5/5.

-PAUL

Reached (Matched #3) by Ally Condie - Paul's Pre-Reading

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Ashley's CROSSED Review

Title: Reached (Matched #3)
Author: Ally Condie
Year Published: 2012

Synopsis: After leaving Society and desperately searching for 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 has been assigned to work for the Rising from within Society, while Ky has been stationed outside its borders. But nothing is as predicted, and all too soon the veil lifts and things shift once again.

Why?: Matched was one of the first in the big Dystopia trend in YA back in 2010, coming out a few months after Mockingjay. I enjoyed the feel of Matched. It had more romance than the Hunger Games trilogy. Crossed was less urban, following Cassia and Ky through the wild. Reached has Cassia back in Society, undercover.

Expectations: Both Matched and Crossed felt like lead up novels so I am expecting an epic ending. I hope there is some recap in the beginning of this book. I read Crossed over a year ago. I expect the romance will come to a final conclusion. I'm hoping to see Cassia kick some butt as a strong young heroine.

Judging a book by its cover: I love the covers in this trilogy! They are so clean, colorful, and sybolic. Cassia is trapped in the bubble, she cracks it, and now she is free. 

-PAUL

"It takes longer to climb than it does to fall"

I guess I should finally get around to blogging about all of these books I've read in the past couple of months. It's been a while since I read a lot of these books though, so these will probably be fairly short. Sorry about that.

I'll start with Crossed, I suppose. Since I wrote about that one first.
My Pre-Reading

I enjoyed this book, although I'm not really sure it lived up to my expectations. I liked that it was written from both Ky and Cassia's perspectives, and I liked that Ky would find something out before Cassia and then she would make some mistake or decision based on wrong information. I still feel that Cassia is only trying to be with Ky because he's an Aberration. Although I'm sure they're supposed to be "really in love," I don't really think that Condie did a great job showing that. To me, their love is shallow and has no real reason. Except that it's difficult.

I feel like Cassia and Xander should be together, and it kills me how much Cassia hurts him every single time he tries to help her. Oh, and the fact that he's a part of the Resistance that Ky doesn't want to join and nobody tells Cassia because Ky is afraid he'll lose her to him. If she really loved Ky, that wouldn't make that much of a difference. I'm hoping that Xander and Cassia end up together at the end of the third book, but I really don't see that happening. Not with two books about Cassia and Ky. Unless, of course, Ky dies. I'm not saying that I want that to happen, but I can't think of any other way Cassia would choose Xander over Ky.

Back to Crossed though, I feel like this novel was a bit of a let down over all of the hype about how it was supposed to be SO EPIC and how Matched was only a set-up for HOW EPIC Crossed would be. I feel like Crossed is just another set-up, and I'm hoping the trilogy ends with a crazy epic finale. Not just running across the wilderness or whining about how you accidentally (or maybe purposely) got matched twice and don't know what to do.

I also felt like a lot of the characters were underdeveloped. Indie had so much potential, but didn't really turn into much. Ky was fairly stagnant, except we learned a little bit about his past. And Cassia was just all over the place. The other characters were mostly forgettable, and had very little depth (if any). Maybe I need to go read Matched again, but I don't feel like this book was anywhere near as good.

I'm not saying I hated the book - I definitely enjoyed it for the most part and am excited for the final part of the trilogy. It just wasn't up to par with a lot of the other books I've been reading lately, and I was definitely a little disappointed. I would give it a 3/5 though, and would probably still recommend the series to most people.


--Ashley

Paul's November Book: Crossed

I'm going to try to start catching up, so bear with me. I've started 4 books and finished 2 since I last blogged, so this could take a while.

I think this was supposed to be Paul's November book, so we're going under that assumption. Since he hasn't blogged about anything since The Girl of Fire and Thorns...

Title: Crossed
Author: Ally Condie
Year Published: 2011

Synopsis: In search of a future that may not exist and faced with the decision of who to share it with, Cassia journeys to the Outer Provinces in pursuit of Ky— taken by the Society to his certain death—only to find that he has escaped, leaving a series of clues in his wake.

Cassia’s quest leads her to question much of what she holds dear, even as she finds glimmers of a different life across the border. But as Cassia nears resolve and certainty about her future with Ky, an invitation for rebellion, an unexpected betrayal, and a surprise visit from Xander— who may hold the key to the uprising and, still, to Cassia’s heart— change the game once again. Nothing is as expected on the edge of Society, where crosses and double crosses make the path more twisted than ever.

Why?: Paul and I have both read Matched, the prequel to this book. It just came out recently, so Paul picked it for his November book and I wanted to read it anyway. The first book was good, and hopefully this one continues the story and answers questions left over from Matched.

Expectations: I expect this book to be better than Matched, since Matched was kind of slow and set up most of the information a reader would need to become engrossed in Cassia and Ky's dystopian world. I also expect this to be kind of epic, since they're supposedly running through the wilderness.

Judging a book by its cover: The cover is very reminiscent of Matched, except this one is blue instead of green. From the cover, I would think that it focus on a girl, possibly trapped in some sort of bubble created by her society/family/something like that that she's finally able to break free from.

--Ashley