The last book in the Matched trilogy brings forth loss and new beginnings. The Rising finally breaches the Society, but their methods may lead to their downfall as the cure for the Plague that they had spread throughout the cities have triggered anuncurable mutation. Now the Society is trying to wrest control from the Rising and the Rising scrambles for a new cure before more can become stilled. It’s up to Cassia, Ky and Xander to choose their fate which may affect their entire world.

As the longest book, it is split into five parts whose titles meaningfully tie together at the end. But first, let’s clear up what’s been happening. Six months since the events of Crossed, all the protagonists have joined the Rising though their trust in it varies. Xander has been posing as a medical Official, perfect for his helpful nature and he is a true beliver in the Pilot and the change that he will bring to the Society. Cassia has returned to the Society as a sorter by day and a trader with Archivist by night but she is wary of who to believe in. While those two are in the capital of society, Ky has been with Indie, training as fighter pilots for the Pilot’s elite force. Which is only a means to an end for Ky as all he cares about is getting back to Cassia.

Then the Pilot breaks through the airways and announces the Rising can move forth. Not to attack for this rebellion will not end in blood but in a cure as they had released a Plague to weaken the Society from the inside, throwing all their ceremonies, and work systems out of whack. They have proven the Society can no longer protect the people, but the Rising will spread knowledge, medicine and free will.

As I said the Plague plan intially goes well until it turns out a mutation has sprung up, giving people a distinct rash, shutting down their internal systems so they’re in corpse-comas as their bodies drown them with pnumonia. It’s almost eerie as Condie describes the fear, caution and hoplelessness the pandemic causes as no one knows how to fix it. The doctors and hospitals are getting overwhelmed, food/transport/other society functions cannot continue without people/citizens are hoarding or quarentine. . . A decade before COVID yet it echoes the sentiments perefectly.

Just as the previous book introduced Ky’s POV, this book introduces Xander’s giving all of the characters equal weight. Since Xander is on the frontlines as a doctor, readers see the change in him. Xander knows his privileged but he’s a good person at heart as his family always taught him to use his good standing to help others. That’s why he is so refreshing compared to other compeating love interests as he really respects Ky as a person first, a romantic rival second. Even then, he keeps his head focused on what’s important like finding the cure and helping society get back to some normalcy. Xander has priorities.

In fact, Xander is so interesting in that respect that Cassia and Ky fall a little to the sidelines as they are on the edges of what the Rising is doing while Xander is in the middle of it. At least, Ky has an interesting part as he tries to suss out the Pilot’s true motivations when he sees the actions of the Rising aren’t quiet matching up with their manifesto. In fact, it seems like the Rising is acting a lot like the Society under a different name, but Ky can’t just run away now. Not just because of Cassia but because he doesn’t want to abandon others like he felt he did when he was little or with the decoys in the Outer Provinces. He is going to stay and help deliver the cure, then find a new life.

Cassia’s part only gets interesting halfway through the book. As I said, she’s very out of the loop and since finding out she’s not immune to the red tablet, she feels more vulnerable of who to trust and what to believe since she can’t remember. There’s a bit interesting part of her trading with Archivist and finding more meaningful work in opening a secret gallary to share art just like her Grandfather would have wanted. But it wasn’t as engaging as Xander and Ky. At least not until part 5 where Cassia, Ky and Xander are reunited by the Pilot as potential traitors to the Rising. . . unless they help find a new cure. For which they have to go to the Stonr Village where abberations and anomolies have been found to be immuned.

As I must emphasize, Xander goes through a great arc. He had been characterized as the golden boy thus far, the nice boy next door and he seems like an ideal revolutionary, fully invested in the Pilot. But as the mutation continues to spread and Xander finds he is unable to help, including his new friends, he feels helpless. He questions if he can really help people, as a doctor or as a person as revelations make him question his faith in the Pilot and others. He sees how many times he has made the mistake of blind trust and doubts himself.

There’s also the romantic dilemma as Xander still longs for Cassia, and hopes with time after the Plague is over, Cassia might choose him. But there is a distance between them. Ky and Cassia’s bond is so strong and even when he’s talking with her, he feels lonely. There’s another potential love interest in Lei, but she is also longing for her fiance, and Xander wonders if this is his fate. To be the second choice. Xander has to learn to stop waiting, to stop trusting others to lead him to final destination and reach for happiness.

Actually that’s a lesson eveyone in the book learns with the various stories of Pilots and the legacy of a new pilot taking the reins. Everyone should be their own Pilot. Not taking one as an ideology or as a symbol but as a message to control your own destiny.

Cassia, for her part, comes to see a new side to Xander too. She is firmly with Ky and doesn’t want him to wait for her Although she does still love him in a different way. A different love that is in the past because Cassia and Xander have changed from the dependable childhood sweethearts they thought they were. He has seen things in the hospital, will be haunted by the people he couldn’t save and holds that pain to him. Cassia has gone to the Outer Provinces, learned to read, walked through the desert and so much more. They’ve lost something in each other.

As for Cassia as an individual, she has finally come to understand what her Grandfather was trying to teach her in finding beauty in the arts and the courage to choose. She is okay with wondering now and not having to know everything, not having to control everything as the Society did. It’s enough just to enjoy the chance to exercise free will.

Ky has less of an emotional arc besides learning to love himself as a whole being, not just seeing himself as a broken replacement for his cousin or an Abberation. But it shows his growth as he is much more at peace in this novel than the last, and has accepted his lot in life. Yet he has hope that things can change for the better. His dynamic with Indie is the most interesting as she provides a foil yet touches on a commonality between them that was surprisingly moving to me.

All in all, I found this to be a moving and mature resolution of the love triangle as Condie focuses less on the competition aspect but on the idea that they are balance one another out and need each other in different ways as the pilot, the physic and the poet. They’re each necessary to grow and develope and to survive.

I do have one nit pick as I feel like Condie got a bit lost with her philosphical internal monologues on the importance of beauty and choice and love. Plus the color symbolism gets too on the nose in the last chapter. I know it’s important as they’d been a reoccuring motif but again, getting to be a bit obvious.

A satisfying conclusion to a unique dystopian trilogy that provides a different take on love triangles and choice and the importance of both in one’s life.

4 stars.