Reached (Matched #3) by Ally Condie

Synopsis: "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."



Title: Reached
Series: Matched #3
Genre: Science Fiction Romance, Dystopian
Pages: 512
Ages: 12+
Date I Finished: July 29th, 2013
My Rating: 3 Stars
My Word: GREAT OVERALL PLOT

Review

Reached, the final book of the series Matched.

I wish I liked it better, I really did.

I was going to give this book 4 stars, but then I thought better of it. Here's my explanation of why I rated it:

Good:
-The plot. I like the creativity of the plague, and how when you go "still", you can still hear your surroundings. Also, the way that you can communicate with another "still" person in your mind. But, the only way to communicate with them is when the other is about to die. Also, the whole Rising and they're plans were very intriguing to me. The whole idea of all the puzzling pieces, such as The Rising's plan for the plague, the meaning of 'the pilot' that Oker told Xander, Nea Lei, the Red Garden Day, etc. All the puzzle pieces were figured out and fit together throughout the book which made me pleasantly surprised to have the book's very own unexpected twists.

-In addition, I liked the little bit of suspense with Ky having the 'you know what'.

-The poetry was so beautifully written, it made me wish I was a poet like Cassia haha.

Ok, here comes the bad: The character development. Ever since the beginning of the series I knew there was something off with the characters, I just couldn't figure what.

Now I know, it's that some characters have a lack of human feelings. Like, Xander isn't even the slightest bit jealous of Ky? Or that Cassia doesn't even shed a tear when she finds out her papers are (view spoiler)gone?!?! Or that Ky and Cassia don't even feel the urge to come hug each other once they finally see each other again after what seemed like forever for them, although the plague is a warning to not get too near each other? Literally, all Ky said during that moment was "I see Cassia." Some parts, though, they did show a little of their loving feelings, and I thought it was cute the way Ky and Cassia shared poems. But, the list could go on for lack of feelings.

Don't get me wrong, some characters, such as Indie and Oker were pretty well thought out and had a nice edge in their personality, but Xander, Ky, and Cassia just didn't feel enough emotion.

Next, the love triangle. It wasn't that great, because, as I noted earlier, Xander wasn't even jealous, nor did he try anything to win Cassia's heart. He kind of just gave up, so I can assure you the love triangle didn't go very far.

Lastly, the story was way too stretched out in the beginning, it was kind of hard to continue reading it in a longer sitting. Knowing me, I like more fast-paced, action books, so I guess this just wasn't the one for me:/.

That's about it! This is more of my constructed, criticized reviews because this book just didn't fill me with that emotional happiness in the end, although it was happy. I just sort of forgot about it in the end. Nothing that made me keep my thoughts on the book after I read it, like what happens with my 5 star rated books. This book missed some things, but overall, I liked it.
★★★