After surviving the barren wasteland that lays in the outer provinces, Cassia, Ky, Indie, and even Xander have taken up their place among the resistance. They wait for a signal from the mysterious Pilot to begin the overthrow of The Society. But, when the rebellion seizes control, they will find out everything is a lot more complicated than they would have imagined.
There is a bit of an undefined time jump between
Crossed and
Reached. We left our mains at the home base of the resistance, off the coast of The Society. We rejoin them in the various places they’ve been placed to aid in the rebellion. Ky remains with Indie on what I called Pilot’s Island, where they themselves were training to be pilots. Cassia and, surprisingly, Xander are at work within The Society. Both of them used the functions of their jobs to help the resistance’s plans. We join them in their wait for the rebellion to begin, for a signal from the Pilot.
And then it happens. And there’s havoc. And then it’s over.
The majority of the book actually takes place after the Officials have been taken out of power. It’s less a story of the rebellion and more about how the rebellion realizes it bit off more than it can chew when it comes to caring for the inhabitants of The Society. I really liked this take on YA rebellions. By emphasizing the after effects of the overthrow, it show how rebellions don’t go as smoothly as I’ve read in past novels. It also showed how Cassia and Co struggled with their post-Society lives. It was a little strange hearing about it all from 17 year-olds, but it at least made sense within the context of Society’s norms.
Also in this third book, we finally meet the mysterious Pilot. At first, Ky and Indie just hear him speak over a radio and Ky notes that he just sounds right. This introduction further made me believe we would have some Mandarin-From-Iron-Man situation, because the Pilot could totally be a fake in order to inspire people. Also, aside from his voice, Condie doesn’t really describe his appearance, which just added to my “He’s a fake” feeling. I mostly wanted this, because it felt like these people were, ultimately, trusting a single person to be the solution. Aside from being the one to take the group out to a village where they might’ve learned the cure for the disease raging through the society, the Pilot actually didn’t do much to further the story in my opinion.
One of the last plot twists of the book is Cassia finally remembering what her Grandfather meant by ‘red garden day’. She recalls having performed an early task for the rebellion: sort this information into the matching database during a practice test and we won’t get your Grandfather in trouble with the Officials. Cassia complies and takes her red pill afterwards, not knowing it would erase her memory of matching herself with both Xander and Ky.
I predicted this twist back in book one, but that doesn’t mean I wanted it to happen. I’m not sure what it means for either Cassia or for the rebellion to have her matched with the two boys. Was it necessary to get them all to believe in the rebellion? Did Cassia just want to have a connection with both Xander and Ky? Ultimately, I was disappointed to learn Cassie had been the one behind the matching mishap.
The good news is: this book definitely felt like a conclusion and it offered some more twists within the subgenre that I saw why it stood out as a book to recommend. The bad news is: there were still parts of this book that felt like they fell short of what would’ve made a really good book.
