Out of five stars (on Goodreads) I gave Reached by Ally Condie two. Then three. Then back to two. Here’s why:

I really, really loved Matched. It’s a great dystopian romance.

But then there was Crossed, which just made me mad because there just wasn’t enough of the romance. I wanted resolution between Cassia, Ky, and Xander. It did not deliver.

So then we get Reached, which I really hoped would be all kinds of amazing and finish up this trilogy in a satisfying way, but it was just kind of… eh. Bleh. The first 300-400 pages were all about curing a plague and continued frustrations with the whole love triangle thing. Plus, there was the Society and the Pilot and the Rising and confusion about who was who and who was good and who was bad. It was so annoying. So why did I keep reading? I honestly don’t know.

The ONLY reason that I gave this three stars instead of two is that finally, in the last 50 pages or so, I got a satisfying ending.

However, there are still so many things left hanging. All this talk of Matthew Markham in the first half of the book, which is then just ignored in the end when Ky is actually looking for his family. The tacked on voting at the end… How did we get from Society to Rising to Society/Rising to a democratic vote? I mean, it’s a nice thought to wrap the trilogy up with, but you can’t just spend hundreds of pages talking about the corruption of these governing structures and forms of civilization and then be all like, “Oh, it’s time to vote. And everyone has magically learned how to write their names.” What the heck? Everybody’s ok with that? No one tries to stop the process to remain in power? Anna actually WANTS to be in power? Doubtful. Oh, and, the whole world is going to vote just because Cassia and Ky say it will work? What about all those who blindly followed the Society, or chose the Society willingly because of the security it offered? They all just went along with what some teenagers said? Gah.

That all makes me want to go back to two stars. I am.