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Title: Matched
Author: Ally Condie
Genre: YA, romance
Pages: Hardback, 366
Published: 2010
Opening Lines: "
Now that that I've found the way to fly, which direction should I go into the night? My wings aren't white or feathered; they're green, made of green silk, which shudders in the wind and bends when I move -- first in a circle, then in a line, finally in a shade of my own invention."
"In the Society, Officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die.
"Cassia has always trust their choices. It's hardly any price to pay to a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one . . . until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path no one else has ever dared follow -- between perfection and passion."
~ Jacket copy
Thoughts: I've read a lot of reviews that say this book is nothing but a poor copy of
The Giver. Sadly, I have not read that book. However, that makes me already poor estimation of this book drop even more.
Cassia lives in a world where every decision is made for you. At the beginning of the book, she sees absolutely nothing wrong with this. It isn't until another picture shows up on her Match screen and then the death of her grandfather. This storyline has a lot of promise. I felt that Condie could have taken it a lot of different places and really fleshed it out. However, she just let the ball drop.
This book, in one word, was boring. The measly amount of action takes place within 10-20 pages from the end of the book. Granted, there are a few "tense" moments, but they are quickly overshadowed or glossed over. When Xander alludes to something BIG happening in their neighborhood, he just lets the ball drop and won't tell Cassia. There are many, many missed opportunities like this throughout the book. She never takes them, never fleshes them out. I feel that she really didn't care too much for the story.
I've read a lot of reviews that call this a dystopian novel. I have to disagree. This is purely romance. While it is set in a seemingly dystopian society, the book itself is not. Cassia laments the choices that are made for them, the threat of Infractions, the Aberration status, etc.; however, it lacks something to be truly dystopian.
I will read the next book, but I'm not holding my breath. This book got a lot of hype, but it just wasn't worth it. If people are looking for a dystopian novel that challenges societal constraints, try something like
1984 or
The Giver. Those, at least, are well written.
Rating: ☆ ☆ ☆
Currently: Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey
Current Pages: 9970
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