Microreview [book]: Reached, by Ally Condie

 A mildly interesting dystomance

 

Condie, Ally. Reached. Speak, 2013.

Buy it here.

Ever noticed how easy it is to talk about really great—or really bad—books/movies/etc., but how difficult it is to explain why something is just so-so? That's the problem I have today, as Reached, while certainly not a bad book, cannot live up to the promise of the trilogy's first installment, Matched, with its wondrous blend of poetry-as-resistance and chilling portrait of the ruthless panoptical (at this point it seems almost redundant to note "dystopic") Society.

Moreover, the love triangle at the center of the trilogy's drama has lost some of its fascination for this reader, at least; in the first book it was thrilling, in the second (Crossed) it was merely believable, but here in the concluding volume, it feels already resolved, somehow, as though there were never any doubt which way each character would go, and indeed alternatives to the characters' "first choice" in love keep conveniently popping up. One senses the heavy hand of Fate here, as well as that slightly oppressive atmosphere of heterosexual pairing in which no eligible female (or, in this case, male) can escape the ironclad bonds of matrimony: the Happy Ending.

But Reached retains flashes of the power of the first volume, as when Cassia recites (even if only in her mind) some of the key forbidden poems, particularly the Dylan Thomas "Do Not Go Gentle". And Condie did well to problematize the Rising, rejecting the easy "resistance at any price" line of moral absolutism and instead presenting a surprisingly balanced and even critical view of just about everyone, Society loyalist, Rising insurgent, or unaligned alike (though those who choose not to choose are made to seem noblest of all, as though to make any compromise in service to an uprising is an unforgivable sin). There are strong echoes/resonances with Hunger Games here, but if you want my two cents, Condie did quite a bit better in wrapping her series up than did Suzanne Collins did with the Hunger Games (particularly the cringe-worthy third volume Mockingjay).

So all in all, even though there doesn't quite feel like enough here around which to hang a story, and the romance part (and, in fact, the dystopia part) fell a little flat, Reached remains one of the better dystomances out there. Whether this is more a commentary on the sad state of the dystomance subgenre is up to you.

The Math

Objective assessment: 5/10

Bonuses: +1 for addressing the moral complexity of  resistance to a dystopian society well (and much better than in Collins' Mockingjay), +1 for foregrounding beautiful poems as the stuff of resistance

Penalties: -1 for letting the central drama of the love triangle (to quote Eddie Izzard on the Ottoman Empire) "slowly collapse like a flan in a cupboard"

Nerd coefficient: 6/10 "Still enjoyable, but the flaws are hard to ignore"

[You can take a gander at our unusual scoring system here.]

This has been a public service announcement by Zhaoyun, scifantomance connoisseur (and yes, I'm brave enough to admit I had to look up how to spell that—I will be forever mystified that the French couldn't have settled on 'connaser' or something reasonable!) and one of the sous chefs here at Nerds of a Feather since early 2013.

Summer Reading List: Zhaoyun

Zhaoyun's Fantastic (with a few post-apocalyptic romps thrown in) Summer Reading List--"it's better than the ones you had in high school"

1. Reached by Ally Condie.

Which way Cassia will go—to Ky or Xander? If this is sounding a little like a soap opera/eerily similar to The Hunger Games trilogy idea of a tempestuous love triangle, well—it is. But it's still entertaining! It was in my "Time Permitting" category last summer, and time did not permit. But here's hoping time will graciously give permission this year!

2. Half a King by Joe Abercrombie 

(release date: July 2014)

  I, like Jemmy, am half in love with Abercrombie (clarification: we're in love with his work!), so this book coming out is one of the most exciting things happening this entire summer!

3. The Widow's House by Daniel Abraham (release date: Aug 2014)

W00t! I love this series, and I'll be fighting tooth and nail with my fellow-feathered Nerds for the privilege of reviewing this latest installment of Abraham's magisterial Dagger and Coin series.

4. Sand by Hugh Howey

Wool sold me on Howey, and his earlier work like Half Way Home wasn't too shabby either; now it's time to examine his latest offering, and see which direction he's going—backwards, or to new and ever more dizzying heights of brilliance!

 

5. Valour (sic!) by John Gwynne 

(U.S. release date: July 2014)

 His first book, Malice, was very nice indeed, and I have Dickens-level (i.e., "great", get it?) expectations for the sequel!

6. The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin (release date: Oct 2014)

The conclusion to Cronin's excellent (book one) or at least very very good (book two) vampire saga—who wouldn't jump at the chance to devour it? Technically, it's not really coming out this summer, not until the fall, but the way I see it, that just means I'm more likely actually to have time to sink my teeth into it (wink wink).

This list brought to you by Zhaoyun, sf/f aficionado and member of Nerds of a Feather Quorum of Twelve (ish) since early 2013.