Reached (Matched #3) by Ally Condie: Book Review

This is the third and final installment of the Matched series of dystopian YA novels by Ally Condie. The three main characters, Cassia, Xander, and Ky, have all left the Society to join the Rising, but at high costs. Cassia is stationed as an undercover sorter working in Central. Ky is a Rising pilot, flying airships here and there and everywhere to aid their cause. And Xander is an undercover medic working in Camas. A major outbreak of a strange illness catapults the entire world into chaos, and the three friends have to rely on each other to survive and to save others.

I enjoyed this enough, but the ending just didn't satisfy me. I felt like the love between Cassia and Ky wasn't believable, probably because they were so rarely together. I couldn't understand why they were so completely devoted to each other when the last time they had any true quality time together was on the hill...in the first book. And the fact that all three of them - Cassia, Ky, and Xander - were so altruistic and completely selfless in their total devotion to one another was unbelievable to me. They are still teenagers, right? Their selflessness and sacrifice to each other (well, at least the boys' to Cassia and to each other) was just not believable. Maybe living in conditions such as those (in the Society), and seeing all the death and destruction that they saw caused them to grow up really fast, but I still feel that there would have been some hint of jealousy or selfish notions on someone's part.

There was too much external conflict in these books, and not enough of an internal conflict to make it compelling. I kind of started to feel like the Plague parts were dragging. I'd had enough of that story line by the end. My feelings toward Cassia were consistent throughout - she's my lest favorite character in this story. I like Xander and Ky more, by far. I wonder if that was the author's intent. All in all, an interesting premise for a dystopian story, and pretty well executed. I'm glad I read this one, but I believe the first book was the strongest of the three. Three stars from me.

Buy Reached on Amazon.com. 
Read about the author, Ally Condie, on Goodreads.com.