Dutton, 2012
Cassia's world was once small and safe in the Society. But then she fell in love, started to learn the truth, joined the rebellion known as the Rising, and now in Reached, the conclusion to Ally Condie's dystopian Matched trilogy, readers finally get to learn if the freedom she dreams of is finally within her grasp.
Building off of the second book, Crossed, which was told from Cassia's and Ky's points of view, this third book added another narrator in Xander, the boy who Cassia was Matched with. While I understand why Condie waited until now to let readers into his mind, a bigger part of me wishes it could have come sooner as he has long been one of my favorite characters in this saga.
On the whole, this conclusion to the trilogy left me wanting more. After all, Matched was a novel that completely and totally blew me away while Crossed had the second book slump in my opinion. I was willing to get past that, though, because it's a fairly common trait in a lot of trilogies. I had high hopes for Reached and while I thought it was very well written, the story left me unsatisfied. The strong emotional connection I had with this series initially just wasn't there like it used to be. The science aspects of the story were an interesting addition, but sometimes I felt like I was being given more than I needed which caused the space to suffer.
Overall, I'm glad I read this book. I know I would have been disappointed to not see this series through to the end. However, and I really hate saying this, but this novel just didn't seem to do it for me, whatever that intangible it is. You can bet I'll continue to read Condie's writing in the future, though, and I look forward to whatever her next project is.Comments welcome, and, as always, happy reading.
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That's how I feel too! I got about 130 pages into Reached and just wasn't in the mindset for it so I paused. I'll come back to it later, but ever since Crossed, I've just felt a little let down by the series. I really liked the direction Matched was going and I felt like the story got completely changed in Crossed and it was a whole new story entirely. I'll be happy to wrap up the series though! I am interested to see how it ends and to see if it leaves me with a better feeling about the series overall. Great review!
ReplyDeleteI really don't like that I feel this way about this book, but it helps to know I'm not alone. Thanks for the comments!
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