Reached

Two Kens and a Barbie try to beat a plague in this tortuous third installment of the Matched series.

Title: Reached | Matched Series

Author: Ally Condie

Genre: YA Dystopian Fiction

Pages: 512

Listened to audiobook

Recommended: to hopeless romantics who don't dig personality in their characters.

Song: "How To Save a Life" by the Fray

(Because that is what they are trying to figure out throughout the whole book. Also because I am watching Grey's Anatomy right now.

Poor End to a Series

Everything I've read by Allie Condie has a great start. She also has the habit of fizzled endings. What captured me in "Matched" was the mystery behind The Society and the possibility of a great love story in the future. The characters, the plot, the setting; they all had potential. I even passed off Crossed as a bad sequel.

Reached never came full circle for me. All of the issues in "Matched" were replaced with a Society-induced plague. The story circles the drain until it it comes to an all-too-predictable ending.

Fluff Characters

I'll give her this; Ally Condie can name a character. Despite great names (Ky, Cassia, Xander, Laynee, Indy) I felt like I was listening to a bunch of paper dolls interact with a dystopian landscape. The only character who takes control of their own destiny is Indy. In the end, Barbie chose one of two Kens and I didn't care which one. I liked that each member of the love triangle had their own points of view. I didn't like that their thoughts were (once again) so chaste. They are teenagers! Where are the raging hormones? They should behave irrationally and feel each other up.

Audiobook

I like that there are three voices for the three narrators represented in the book. Since there were three narrators, it would have been neat for the female parts to be voiced by the girl narrator, and the male parts by the guys. This has been done wonderfully in audiobooks by Orson Scott Card.

Just like in "Crossed", there were random segments with weird music. Totally strange.

I really wanted to like this series but I think it would have been better if "Matched" has stood alone.

#YA #BookReview #AllyCondie #Reached #Matched #MatchedSeries #Dystopian #fiction