Review: Reached (Matched #3) by Allie Condie

Title: Reached
Author: Allie Condie
Series: Matched Trilogy
Book #: 3
Pages: 512
Reading Level: YA
Book Rating:
Goodreads Rating: 4.21
Published: Nov. 12th, 2012

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.

In this gripping conclusion to the #1 New York Times-bestselling Matched Trilogy, Cassia will reconcile the difficulties of challenging a life too confining, seeking a freedom she never dreamed possible, and honoring a love she cannot live without.(

Taschima's POV:

Let me give it to you all cut and dry... it was okay, entertaining, but not what I was expecting.

That was... unexpected [key word] to say the least. Every time I think of Matched, the first book in the series, I get this happy feeling in my head because it was a book I really loved. And that book was about love, plain and simple. Forbidden love found in a hopeless place (HA, to quote Rhianna). Sure Crossed dropped the ball a tad, but that usually happens with the second book. I was hoping that Reached would go back to its roots and blossom once more, but I feel like it doesn't even belong in the same series. The story took a turn that was just weird and not so much unexpected like "Woah! That would never happen" as in "Wow, I really thought something else was going to be the focus of the story".

Cassia, Ky, and Xander are all playing their parts to bring the Society down. Cassia is sorting, Ky is flying planes of some sorts, and Xander is working with the medicine peoples. The shit hits the fan pretty early on in the story so we are left in the rest of the story dealing with the repercussions. This is all good really, until a plague breaks out in the Society, a plague brought by the Rebellion in their twisted plan to be the saviors of this new world. Only, the plague gets worse and worse, and there is nobody able to provide a cure.

And that is basically what the whole story focuses on for the entire book. A race to find the cure. It's just, it seems like a whole new series after a certain point. I thought The Matched trilogy dealt more with the characters, and how they are and how they think and feel. Matched was more character driven and Reached is a lot more plot driven than anything. At the beginning the story was about Cassia and Ky, and, let's face it, love. By the end the story has something about love, but the character are yet again separated throughout the novel and the plague is all the rave, front and center.

The book is more about Xander than anything else really. Xander, Cassia and their friendship. But more just Xander. In my mind Matched was more Cassia, Crossed was more Ky, and Reached was more Xander. I think that's why I liked Matched more because I like who Cassia is more. The quiet rebel. But I love me some Xander too, so I was thrilled to learn about his story, I just didn't expect the story to be more about him.

So at the end my veridict is I liked/enjoyed it, but it wasn't what I had come to expect from the series. I am sure a lot of people will love/enjoy it though. The writing is still beautiful, there are some passages that take your breath away, but that wasn't enough to distract me from the fact that the path Reached ended up taking didn't feel right. I am open to the suggestion of making a fourth book/novella and giving the finale another go.