It all comes tumbling down...
With finales, unfortunately accompanied by great character loses and love triangle disasters, Reached felt suspenseful from page one. It takes a long time to overthrow a society. As Cassia, Xander and Ky learned in the sequel Crossed, there is a pilot a.k.a leader who began the Rising before they were even born. An immunity was given to some citizens at birth to prevent them from a paralyzing virus in the future. The time has come to take over the society once and for all by bribing them with the cure. But what no one expected was that viruses tend to mutate. What happens when there's no longer a cure?
Control is a theme seen throughout the book as our main characters are left at their work posts waiting for the pilot to decide what action comes next. Not all are immune, and therefore a race against the clock begins and the possibility of death puts many things (like love) into perspective. Sometimes we must take matters into our own hands.
Since Cassia's love preference always seemed clear from the start, Condie's decision to add the virus into the mix gave the book the suspense it needed for a gran finale.
