Reached

Reached (2012), the third volume of Ally Condie’s young adult Matched trilogy, takes place in a future world where the governing body, called the Society, uses personal data and advanced statistical methods to map out the happiest life for each of its citizens. The Society determines who marries whom, what profession each person pursues, when they die, and more, all with the intent of creating a utopia. In the series’ opening book, Cassia Reyes is seventeen, the age to be matched in marriage. Surprisingly, she’s paired with her longtime friend, Xander Carrow, but a glitch in the system also fleetingly matches her with Ky Markham, causing Cassia to question the infallibility of the Society. Cassia, Xander, and Ky join forces in Reached to undermine their government and gain control of their lives.

The story is told from the rotating first-person perspectives of Xander, Cassia, and Ky. They’re in league with a rebel organization known as the Rising, which is directed by The Pilot, a messianic-like leader who is never seen. Each has a specific role to play in the uprising. Cassia is exceptionally skilled at her job in the Society as a “sorter” trained to analyze citizens’ psychological data to predict the best marriage matches or general behaviors. The Rising has instructed her to remain at her job in Central, but to watch for unusual data, which will signal the start of the rebellion. Ky, who is training to be a pilot in Camas, and Xander, “physic,” are also awaiting personal alerts that the rebellion is beginning.

The Rising plots to topple the Society by repurposing a plague the Society originally engineered to conquer the Enemy. With a cure at hand, the Rising will deploy the plague across the provinces. When the Rising heroically intervenes with the cure to save those who are suffering, it will win the trust and support of the Society’s citizens. As a physic, Xander is already covertly undermining the Society’s chemical control of citizens. The Society administers immunization pills to every newborn, prescribing more tablets as children grow, including a red tablet, which each citizen must carry but only consume on official order. This red tablet wipes out memories of the preceding twelve hours. Xander is giving newborns Rising-manufactured pills that immunize them against the red tablets.



Careful to curate every detail of its peoples’ lives, the Society has eliminated creativity. Writing is forbidden, and all visual and literary arts have been censored, save for the Society-decided 100 best. Cassia’s grandfather shared contraband poems with her before he died, instilling her with a creative spirit. She now trades with the underground organization “the Archives,” which traffics in banned artifacts.

When Xander and Lei, a nurse, are called to tend to a boy who is seemingly comatose, or “still,” Xander, recognizing this as a plague symptom, knows the Rising’s pandemic plans are underway. Ky and another pilot, his friend Indie, receive a flight assignment together; the voice of the Pilot announces through the aircraft’s speaker that the rebellion has begun. They are tasked with distributing the cure throughout the provinces. Meanwhile, strange data appears in her sorting, and Cassia also knows the time has come.

In addition to becoming “still,” plague victims develop a rash. Xander and Lei work tirelessly treating the fallen with the cure to restore their health. It works, for a while. Then a patient dies, and Xander realizes the plague has mutated. The cure is no longer effective, but those who contracted the original strain and recovered are immune to the mutation.



Cassia, inspired by a young girl’s bird sculpture, sets up a public gallery where people can share their art. She experiences several flashbacks of an afternoon with her grandfather in a green space. He called it a “red garden day.” She also recalls two women persuading her to illegally add unofficial data to her sorting. Cassia doesn’t understand the significance of these memories.

As the mutation ravages the provinces, the Pilot convenes Cassia, Ky, and Xander on an aircraft to transport them to Endstone, where they’ll collaborate to create a new cure with Oker, the ninety-year-old designer of the original plague. Lei has become still. During the flight to the stone villages inhabited by Society outcasts, the Pilot reveals that Cassia’s great-grandmother was long ago the Pilot—the Rising’s leader. Ky exhibits symptoms of the plague. While Cassia loves both Xander and Ky, she knows that Ky is her heart’s match. He’s whisked to the infirmary after they land in Endstone, and before falling still, he admits he kissed Indie but loves Cassia.

Xander and Oker scramble to find the cure. After several setbacks, Oker discovers the answer but dies of a heart attack without divulging his epiphany. Sorting through botanical data with her friend Anna, Cassia sees a sego lily, a three-petaled flower her mother likes, which also resembles the imprint Oker made in the mud. They collect the lily in the woods, concoct a vaccine, and give it to Ky. He rallies. The Pilot returns, and the trio heads to Cassia’s home province, where her mother knows of a large lily field. The Pilot tells them Indie is dead, a plague casualty. He admits that the Rising and the Society have infiltrated each other and are virtually one.



Cassia’s mother has gone still. After receiving the newly-formulated cure, she discloses that Cassia’s grandfather was part of the Rising. Cassia suddenly understands her grandfather’s words, “red garden day” refer to red tablet-induced amnesia, which made her forget details of the unofficial data the women gave her. The memory returns now, and she’s shocked to realize that she herself added the data that resulted in her purportedly mistaken match with Ky. The Society insisted it was an error because Ky, as an aberrant (offender), was ineligible for marriage. Xander treats Lei with the cure, and Cassia tells him that Lei is actually Laney (from book two), whose match, Vick, has died.

With recovery from the plague underway, the provinces prepare to elect new leadership. Cassia and Ky convince Anna to return from Endstone to run for office against the Society and the Rising. Xander chooses to stay in Endstone, where Lei joins him, and they confess their mutual love.
Matched, the first novel of Condie’s trilogy, places her protagonists in a planned society where everyone’s decisions are made for them using a complex algorithm designed to ensure happiness. The following volumes, Crossed and Reached, explore the theme of individual choice and conclude that true happiness depends on freedom.