Book Seven

Reached

By Ally Condie

I finally got my hands on a copy of Reached.  With the semester taking off in earnest I've been struggling to find time for reading, but when this book came in at the library I found time for it.

Reached was the perfect ending for this series.  The story is amazing and the twist that provides the main plot thread for this last book was clever.  I found myself wishing for more when I finished reading.  There are many unexplored aspects of this universe that I would have liked to learn more about.  The surrounding enemy and mysterious Otherlands left me imagining the setting to be North Korean despite name like Cassie.  

I do have my complaints out about this book and the series in general.  I loved the story.  It was unique and interesting, but the books themselves are wordier than necessary.  The writing is circular and dull in places.  As a reader I recognized the poetic wordiness is meant to mirror the poetic nature of Cassie, the first person narrator, but it makes the book more difficult to read, not a good feature for a young adult novel.  Each of the books requires trimming.  If they were half their size they would be much better.

Recommendations:

At the end of the day I did enjoy this book and series so I definitely would recommend this book to YA readers.  I would describe this series as a cross between Hunger Games and Twilight set in the Ugly's universe.  Fans of those series will love this one.  I would not recommend this for low readers.  The wordiness makes the book difficult to read despite the good story and would be frustrating for low readers.

Stars:

7 out of 10