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

Title: Reached (Matched, #3)
Author: Ally Condie
Rating: ★★★ (3/5 Stars)
Hardcover, 512 Pages
Published November 2012
Book 3 of 3 in the Matched Trilogy

Summary: After leaving Society to desperately seek 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 is assigned undercover in Central city, Ky outside the borders, an airship pilot with Indie. Xander is a medic, with a secret. All too soon, everything shifts again.

Okay, I have quite a bit to say about this book, but the first thing that I'm going to say is that I absolutely fell in love with Matched and had such high hopes for the rest of the trilogy, which wasn't really BAD, but...I was disappointed. Which makes me really sad, like I said. When I picked up Matched at BookCon (and you can read by review of that by clicking here) and started reading it while waiting in line for some panels, I couldn't put it down. I raced back to the Penguin book truck to pick up copies of Crossed (which you can read by review of by clicking here) and Reached, which they were sadly sold out of. But since I had such high hopes for the trilogy because I knew I was already in love with Matched after only an hour or so, I made sure that we made a mandatory stop at Barnes & Noble after BookCon so I could pick up the rest of the trilogy.

Matched was captivating, Crossed was disappointing, and Reached was just blah. I don't really know why. I feel like the first book brought about new ideas and there were twists and turns at every corner. This book kind of just dragged on and on and on.

Also, the time flew so fast in this book! One chapter would end, and another would pick up two/three months later--like WHAT? The Rising is fighting the Society continuously, so what are the odds that absolutely nothing interesting is going on during that time span? It just didn't make any sense to me.

Now, for my thoughts on the ending. THERE ARE SPOILERS AHEAD. SKIP THE PURPLE PARAGRAPH IF YOU DO NOT WANT THE BOOK SPOILED FOR YOU.

I found the ending of this book soooo dissatisfying. All of a sudden, Xander and Lei fall in love? (Which was kind of a jerk move on Xander's part, knowing that Lei was Vick's beloved Laney.) And why the heck did Oker die, all of a sudden? Nothing adds up to me. Nothing makes any sense. And what exactly happens to the Society? Sure, they all voted, but what were the results? What happened? What happened with Bram and Molly and Cassia and Ky and everyone's future? And did everyone eventually get to the Otherlands? 

I know that the endings of some books are sometimes supposed to leave you with dozens of questions so you can formulate your own future for the characters, but I felt that this book was just rushed through and the ending was just cut off waaay too quickly. I thought that Condie had pulled a Cassandra Claire and decided to turn the trilogy into more books--because how the heck could the book just END like that? Hardly anything was answered. 

All in all, I didn't dislike this book. I really did like it. I just felt that too many questions were left unanswered and too much time was passed over without any details. There was supposed to be a rebellion. It seemed like too easy of a takeover, and there wasn't even any fighting or resistance or just interesting drama. The writing style itself was great--I love how Condie brings the voices of the characters to life--and if the plot had been a little more detailed, I know I would have loved this book just as much as I absolutely adored Matched. 

That's all I have to say for today! Oh, one more announcement--as a thank you to helping us reach our first 100 followers on Twitter, we will be giving away a new copy of Ruin & Rising! More details on that will come. Follow our Twitter to stay updated!