reachedI remember first seeing Matched  among the many dystopian trilogies once The Hunger Games  rose in popularity.  Many of these dystopian trilogies focused on some sort of a love triangle and one would assume that Condie would have followed this trend.  Admittedly, there is a love triangle between the main female character, Cassia, and her two suitors, Ky and Xander, but this story arc comes to a satisfactory resolution at the end of the first novel.  So if the love story isn’t Condie’s primary focus, what is her trilogy about? In a strange twist, the final installment, Reached,  looks at the decision-making process of a leader, and asks: what would you be willing to give up for the “greater good”?

The story opens with Ky, Cassia, and Xander in separate locations working for the rebel force, the Rising. Both Cassia and Xander have infiltrated the Society working as officials.  Cassia is a sorter and Xander is a physic (a doctor). Ky is training to be a pilot for the revolutionary force. As a Society-engineered plague begins to infect the population, the Rising assumes control of the Society and begins to administer a cure. However, some notice that the Rising’s coup d’etat was a little too easy and bloodless.  Ky, Cassia, and Xander discover the conditions of the Society’s surrender as the illness mutates and renders the Rising’s cure useless.

Like other dystopia trilogies such as Lauren Oliver’s Delirium, Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games, and Veronica Roth’s DivergentReached shares a similar message that we are more like our foes than we care to believe.  In fact, most often in these novels, the only appreciable difference between the oppressive leadership and the rebel force is the name of each entity.  However, Condie makes a similar case, but from a different and a more realistic angle.

Condie spends a good part of the novel exploring the rationales behind various leaders’ decisions in their course of action.  They all understand that to make the best decision for their populace, they must be willing to sacrifice; and sometimes, those sacrifices come in the form of giving up one’s moral tenants or ideals.  One can see the difference between a political leaders campaign promises and what they are actually able to achieve during their term in office.  In many ways, Reached reads like an allegory for democracy.

Condie explores this leadership allegory by giving us a more humane look at the Pilot’s role within the Rising and the decisions made.  Reading the latter half of the novel is reminiscent of a gentler 1984. Unlike other dystopian story lines, the reader gets an insight into the rationale behind those decisions.When a new epidemic arises, people look to their various leaders for answers. Here Condie exposes the complex choices faced before them, and demonstrates that there is no straight forward easy answer.  These kinds of moral choices aren’t simply faced by the leaders within the novel, but also many of the characters within the novel are faced with similar difficult choices: whether it was the Pilot’s timing of the uprising, Xander’s feelings towards Cassia versus his willingness to help people, and Ky’s motivation to help the Rising.

Granted, the leadership dilemma is not only one facet of the story, but rather a fascinating approach to real problems faced by leadership.  It was so refreshing to read that Ally Condie did not reduce her arguments to a choice between Option A or Option B.  All choices come with their benefits and flaws with no clear path ahead of them

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