26 August 2013

Reached by Ally Condie

Reached by Ally Condie
Series: Matched #3
Publisher: Dutton Books
Publication Date: November 15th 2012
Source: Library



All will be sorted. 

Cassia's journey began with an error, a momentary glitch in the otherwise perfect façade of the Society. After crossing canyons to break free, she waits, silk and paper smuggled against her skin, ready for the final chapter.

The wait is over.

One young woman has raged against those who threaten to keep away what matters most - family, love, choice. Her quite revolution is about to explode into full-scale rebellion.

With exquisite prose, the emotionally gripping conclusion to the international bestselling Match trilogy returns Cassia, Ky, and Xander to the Society to save the one thing they have been denied for so long, the power to choose.

I'd been debating about whether to pick this book up for quite a while. I loved Matched, didn't enjoy Crossed, so I didn't really know whether it was worth picking the last book up. I decided to anyways, so that I could finish the series and get it over with. I enjoyed this one more than Crossed, but it still wasn't amazing. I found myself having to push myself to read this one. I just wasn't all that interested in the story line - apart from the finding the cure bit, that was the only part I found interesting. I wasn't a major fan of the characters (except Xander), so it just wasn't as good as I'd hoped it would be.

So this whole book revolves around the Rising trying to take down the Society, and they get their chance when a virus starts spreading and the Rising have the cure. But what they didn't plan for was the virus to mutate and their cure didn't work on the mutation. Cassia is working in Central doing sorting for the Rising; Xander is in the Camas Providence acting as an Official for the Rising; and Ky and Indie are flying planes for the Pilot. The story also revolves around Ky and Cassia's desperation to be together again. 

Cassia was alright in this one, not  my favourite character but I didn't hate her. She was just... there. Wandering about, trading, sorting, and thinking about Ky and Xander. I don't like how she stringed Xander along for so long. It's clear he has strong feelings for her, and she never told him that she didn't have feelings for him, so Xander always had hope that they'd get together and I didn't like Cassia for doing that.

I wasn't a massive fan of Ky either in this one. He was supposed to be helping the Rising and the Pilot, but all he could think about was Cassia. When he was delivering cures, he was planning to take the plane to Central to find Cassia and all I could think was "How selfish is that?". There were people dying and being infected by the virus and he was thinking of taking of with a plane full of cures just to find Cassia? Yeah, that was very selfish. 

I loved Xander though. Xander was in Camas pretending to be an Official, and when the virus broke out he was brought in as a Physic. So Xander is working first hand with the virus and is the first one to notice the difference when the mutation starts. Xander puts all of his energy into finding a cure for the virus and I loved that he did that. Xander was determined that he was going to find a cure and help people - especially after his friend Lei contracts the mutation. 

The story line of the cure was interesting. I was intrigued by the fact that there were people immune to the mutation and the original virus, so it was interesting to see all the research and studying that went into finding the cure, because those people were obviously doing something right. The story of the Pilot and the Rising didn't interest me that much. There was so much crossover between the Society and the Rising that they were basically the same people. It made me wonder if the rebelling was even worth it since there were Society infiltrates in the Rising. It just seemed pointless when I found that out. I was pretty upset about what happened with Indie. Indie was a fantastic character and I just wish we'd gotten to see more of her in this book. The ending was nice for Xander. I was happy that he'd finally managed to get over Cassia and find his happy ending. It was nice.

Overall, this wasn't a great book but it wasn't terrible either. I enjoyed parts of it and had to force myself through other parts. I am glad that I finished the series though, but I'm disappointed at how quickly it went downhill after the first book for me. But it was a nice end to the series.

6 comments:

  1. I agree with you that both sequels lost steam compared to Matched. I didn't like how very twisted everything became and once you think about it, you're not sure anymore of how to help fix things if the Society and the Rising are so mixed up! But it was also a great way to show that power corrupts, even if just the thought of attaining it!

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    1. They really did.
      Everything was so twisted and intertwined that you didn't know who the Rising and the Society were by the end. It was interesting to see how far they went to get power though, and by the end I didn't know who was in power anymore.

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  2. I loved the first book to death...the rest of the series just didn't live up to my standards. Great review(:
    Happy reading
    Jackie

    http://www.nobentspines.blogspot.com/

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    1. They never lived up to mine either. I was really disappointed with the last two books.
      Thanks Jackie!

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  3. The first was amazing, the second I hated, and the third disappointed me greatly. It was the same thing over and over and over throughout the book. I was Team Xander from the very beginning and I didn't like how this one ended :/

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    1. I hated the second one too! It was so boring! I'm happy with the way it ended because I never thought Cassia was good enough for Xander, so I'm glad they didn't end up together.

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