Hmmm… So I finished Reached, the third book in a dystopian trilogy by Ally Condy. I got the first part, Matched, from Kim when she was clearing out books. I read that last week and I enjoyed it. It reminded me a bit of The Giver by Lois Lowry which is a classic in the dystopian sub-genre. I found the concepts and characters intriguing enough to want to read the next two parts but not enough to warrant buying the paperbacks. So I acquired them in e-book form and read the second part, Crossed, in one day last Saturday. That part suffered from middle-part syndrome quite badly, but not enough to make me quit.
In short, after wars and all those things, a group decided to rebuild society and limit free will and what people can and cannot do to prevent a repeat. The Society has chosen 100 pieces of some art forms that are still allowed to be seen and talked about and stuff (100 paintings, poems, stories and songs). Other than that, there is no art and creativity. People don’t make things, even their writing is copy-pasted phrases on tablets. The Society has data on everything, and everything is sorted and matched and regulated to create the healthiest and most productive people.
People go to school and afterward are given a designated work position. They only have to know what they need for that job and nothing else. So a botanist only knows about plants, a medic only knows about treating people and so on. If one is lucky, they become an Official, one of the people who run things. Children are Matched with their prospective partner when they are 17. This is followed by a strictly regulated courtship until marriage at 21. After which children are expected around age 24 as that is the optimum age for healthy children. And so on.
Cassia, the main character, is in luck. Unlike most cases, she already knows her match, her best friend Xander. This is what the book starts with, the Matching Banquet. But then, when Cassia views the micro chip she’s been given, as per tradition, with info on Xander, she sees a photo of a different boy. It is Ky, another boy from her neighbourhood and friend group. Something like that is not supposed to happen and it leads to doubt in Cassia’s mind about the Match, and the whole process.
When her grandfather dies, because he turns 80 and that is when people die in the Society, he gives Cassia poems. Poems that are not part of the 100. This brings Cassia to further question the Society and with this mind set, she sees more and more things that are off, and realises that art from before the 100 were chosen, as well as other items, are used to trade. Trade for information, but also to trade for passage to other places, beyond the Society’s inner provinces.
Cassia and Ky hang out a lot over the summer as they both chose the same recreational thing to do, hiking. Cassia falls in love with Ky, and then the conundrum of what to do, who to choose, who to believe, who to follow really takes off. The Society notices their association and as Ky is classified as an Abberation, he is eventually taken away.
The second and third books take this further as the Society starts clamping down on things, a revolution brews and Cassia, Ky and Xander must navigate these circumstancces to find each other, and try and help rebuild a new society and figure out their love triangle. As I said, the second book is not as good. It’s slower and not much happens, but it does give a lot more info and background on the Society and the people that chose to live outside it. About the trade system and about the revolution. The third book is a nice surprise as usually these books end with the overthrowing of the old government and the new dawn rising. But here, the revolution succeeds pretty early in the book. The rest is dedicated to show that even after such an event, things don’t magically fix themselves.
I was a wee bit disappointed in the ending. I had hoped to also learn more about the Otherlands and how the rest of the planet is faring. I understand it is too much for the scope of the story as is, but maybe a short story here or there in the future would be nice. All in all, for people that like dystopian fiction, I would recommend this.