Reached

Reached by Ally Condie

There is no point saying that this book was a huge disappointment. I never had high or even slight expectations for it anyway. As much as I hoped the author might pull it together for a thrilling conclusion, making the 1,248 page trilogy worth my while, I didn’t think there was actually a chance. This last volume of the trilogy will go down in my “book” with Inheritance and Going Bovine as one of the worst books I ever willingly chose to read.

The first book in the series, Matched, looks great after this monstrosity. I remember it fondly. The second book, Crossed, was my indication that this series, which includes a revolutionary leader known as the Pilot, didn’t have any direction or guidance itself. The author doesn’t seem in control of a direction and she didn’t receive useful guidance from an editor. Quantity over Quality is the mantra of the Information Age. What will it take to get us back to fewer, but superior novels? Probably an apocalypse that leads to a dystopian/dysfunctional society…

On the positive side, book #1 was written in Cassia’s voice. Book #2 was written in both Cassia and Ky’s voice. Book #3 was written in Cassia, Ky AND Xander’s voice. And Xander is the character that finally stole the show. Had the series still been in development, I would have instructed the author to switch protagonists and try again. Cassia and Ky are really not worthy to share the limelight with a real rebel and hero – Xander. He is a true leader.

Xander is a physic, or doctor. Another part of the book that I found interesting involves the Plague. The Society created a Plague to kill off the Enemy, but an unfortunate side effect was that the Society’s water became polluted with the virus as well. Fortunately, the Rising has the Cure and Xander is at the forefront of administering the Cure when the Rising finally takes over. Unfortunately, the virus mutates into a secondary plague for which there is no cure. And guess who takes the lead in the race for a new cure? Yes, indeed, Xander.

At the same time, the Plague arc of the story receives way too much detailed description. The trilogy was not set up to be about a Plague and yet book three is all about the Plague. I was of the belief that the trilogy was going to be about the Society and its ill-intent against the masses. It was also going to be about the rise of the Rising to conquer the Society and restore Choice to the people. And I think many were led to believe that there was going to be a love triangle along the way. There is no epic battle. The Rising is no better than the Society. And there really isn’t any real love in the triangle. Saying you are in love with someone isn’t truth without the actions to go with.

In general, I felt like the three books that were published were more the ground work needed to create a world that would become a novel, but weren’t quite the novel yet. The author spends an inordinate amount of time philosophizing. Some of it is quite intriguing, but doesn’t make a good story. I like her idea or concept. I don’t think it was carried out successfully. Not likely to read anything else by this author.