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.
★★★

Matched (Matched #1) by Ally Condie

Synopsis: Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate... until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.

The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow

Title: Matched
Series: Matched #1
Genre: Romance, Dystopian
Pages: 366
Ages: 12-17
Date I Finished: August 11th, 2012
My Rating: 4 Stars
Book Format: Paperback (I own)
My Word/Phrase: :( POOR XANDER ): (lol I've been talking about the boys recently in my "phrases")

Review:I loved this book a lot, and there were minor things I would touch up on, but they were kind of my personal opinion so I gave this book a 4 star. I'll star off by talking about what I thought could change and then I'll do the parts I LOVED. P.S. There are spoilers. Make sure you've read Matched before reading review.

Okay, I just HATED that Cassia basically ditched Xander. :'( I felt so bad. What did Xander do wrong? I feel so bad that Xander got left in the dust. Near the end I would've been mad if Cassia dumped me and then asked a favor to help find the boy she truly loved, just like she did to Xander...NOT COOL I really hope the sequel has Xander finding a better girl. The characters were okay. They seemed very similar to each other (Ky and Xander, Cassia and Em) but not quite the same, which didn't bug me that much. Also, this book was very similar to The Giver. I liked The Giver; I mean, it was okay. This book was better than The Giver though if I had to choose. This might be just because I like action, but there really wasn't much of it in this book. It seemed slightly slow, but every page had a huge part in the story!

This book DOES have a lot of pros, though. I'm a sucker for romance. The little things that Ky and Cassia did together were so cute! I loved how they did little, simple things: (kiss, write "I love you" to each other) Unlike this generation which is making out and grinding, basically. Also, I love the incorporation of the poems. Cassia kept thinking of the "do not go gentle" part of the poem and I love how she kept bringing it back throughout the story.

Ugh....CLIFFHANGERS. Well, this was a cliffhanger for me at least. SHE HAS TO FiND KY!!! Obviously, I loved this book a lot (mostly because of the romance) but there were some little patches here and there that I wanted to change because they kept nagging me throughout the story. The minor problems were basically how mad I was that Cassia just dumped Xander. POOR XANDER! He was MATCHED with her and now he has nobody :'( I hope Cassia chose Ky because she wanted someone like me to date Xander, of course. Anyway, I give this book four stars because, well, I'm not a critical reviewer ;) AND despite all the bad things I thought of, it was beautifully written and thr romance was just a sweet cherry on top for me. (And I'm still waiting for Xander to come find me and date me!)
★★★★