Reached

Starred review from November 5, 2012
As the finale to Condie's Matched trilogy opens, Cassia, Ky, and Xander are separated, working as subversive agents of the Rising rebellion and awaiting their chance to take down the dictatorial Society. Condie doesn't waste time getting to the action: the long-awaited Rising begins in the early chapters, and its ramifications and complications unfold at a steady pace. As a deliberately introduced plague exceeds the Society's resources, the Rising steps in with a cure and tries to prove itself the better choice for the people. Events start to spin out of control as the plague mutates, and it will take extraordinary measures by the reunited trio to bring the story to its unexpected conclusion. Condie continues to draw readers in to her vivid broken world, adding rich color to the story through the interplay between characters and small but important moments. Unpredictable twists and revelationsâyes, that includes a happy resolution to the trilogy's romantic triangleâwill leave readers satisfied with the fates of their favorites. Ages 12âup. Agent: Jodi Reamer, Writers House.

Starred review from November 1, 2012
While staying true to the science fiction and romance at the core of Matched (2010) and Crossed (2011), the trilogy's breathless finale blossoms into a medical thriller too, adding breadth and resonance. Cassia, Ky and Xander are far apart. Ky unenthusiastically flies air ships for the Rising, an enigmatic organization poised to overturn the Society. The Rising sends Cassia to work from the inside, so she sorts data for the Society, awaits the Rising's instruction and trades poetry underground. Xander's a Society medical Official who uses his position to subtly immunize infants against the forced-forgetfulness tablets that the Society regularly gives adults. The three take turns narrating in first-person present, revealing tantalizing information gaps: What does one character wonder while another knows? What do readers not know yet? A plague breaks out, mutates and becomes a pandemic--which aspects were intentional, and on whose part? Poems (Tennyson, Dickinson, Thomas) and a painting (Sargent) figure heavily and beautifully on both symbolic and literal levels. Is the Rising trustworthy? Can a living human also be an archetype? Condie's prose is immediate and unadorned, with sudden pings of lush lyricism. Her protagonists are no run-of-the-mill romance triangle, her forms of activism (art, medicine) rich. Each character is differently strong and differently wounded. With reveals seeming to arrive on almost every page, prepare to stay up all night. (author's note referencing poems and paintings) (Science fiction/romance. 13 & up)

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December 1, 2012

Gr 7 Up-In this gripping and richly satisfying final book in this dystopian series, Cassia, Ky, and Xander recount in alternating chapters how they secretly find themselves working for the Rising, the group that's trying to overthrow the rigid and oppressive Society. In Crossed (Dutton, 2011), Cassia found Ky, the boy she's in love with but who's not her Match, after he disappeared into the Outer Provinces. He is now a pilot with the Rising. Cassia's back in Central working as a human computer algorithm sorting people into their Matches while secretly trading snippets of forbidden poetry with the Archivists and working to create a forum where people can openly share their art. Xander, Cassia's official Match, is an Officer and Physic in the Society, trusted with making sure that babies receive their immunizations but secretly replacing these pills with others that prevent disease and memory loss. When a plague created by the Society spreads out of control, Ky is asked to help fly cures into the impacted cities. The Rising is using this plague to show that they can save the people. Not everyone is immune to the plague and soon a pandemic breaks out, sickening many, including Ky. Unless Cassia, Xander, and Oker, a 90-year-old doctor who escaped being killed by the Society at age 80, can figure out a cure, the Rising will fail and the Provinces will fall apart. Fans who want closure will love this last book in the series that effectively combines action, romance, science, philosophy, and the arts.-Sharon Rawlins, New Jersey State Library, Trenton

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.