Matched by Ally Condie

Title: Matched (Matched #1)
Author: Ally Condie
Format: Paperback, 369 pages
Pub. Date: September 20th 2011
Source: Gift

★★★★★

Five amazing stars.

All her life, Cassia has been waiting to be Matched to the man that the Society states will be her perfect mate. She's never questioned the Society's choices, and is elated when she is Matched with her best friend, Xander.... But something goes wrong. Another boy's face is shown on screen. The face of another boy she knows, Ky. The Society tells her that it is only a glitch- but the Society is never wrong. The more that Cassia wonders what life could be like with Ky, the more things seem to be out of place, seem to not add up. The "perfect" life around her is changing, and she must decide where she stands, risking her life and her love as she does so.

----

Why did I wait so long? I've been meaning to read this for ages, and I only just got around to it. This needed to have been in my life sooner.

+The first positive is the cover. I know that a good cover doesn't make a good story, but I'm not ashamed to admit that's what initially aroused my interest in the book. It's gorgeous and shiny and I kind of want a poster of it for my room. Do those exist? It also perfectly sums up the story, even in its simplicity.

+Being a bibliophile, I love that literature/poetry is a prominent motif throughout the story. I understood Cassia's fuel for learning language and words, even if they were forbidden. On a personal note, I'm currently in college to become an archivist. I very heavily related to her father, whose job it is to sort out old books and historical artifacts and help decide what stays, and what gets burned, lost forever. It pained me to even think about such losses to the world, and scares me because it's possible.

+And on that note, the potential realism of this dystopian setting definitely helped to make it a more enjoyable read. Books about government control aren't new. However, this book helps to set apart its government from other works by mixing the elements extremely futuristic technology (ports, scribes, data tags) with old school, almost ancient ways of thinking, such as marrying who is best for the people and learning only one craft and nothing more than you need to know. As cool as the Matching is, it is also terrifying, and I wouldn't want to live in The Society, that's for damn sure.

+This book is well detailed. I feel like I could draw a map of her neighborhood and the city, and the buildings and landmarks within it. The setting isn't the only thing that's well described. The characters are written well enough that I felt like I personally knew them. This added to the reading experience as well, since I felt personally attached to the people involved. It gave me things to hope for, to cheer for, and to mourn.

-The only real flaw that I have for this book is that sometimes flashbacks and the present are muddled together. More than once I had to double back a few lines and see what time I was reading. This wasn't a major snag for me, but I feel it is worth noting.

This book has been bumped up to my favorites list. I think that fans of The Hunger Games, Uglies, and Beta will enjoy this book, as well as young adult romance fans. Though I've been behind on this bandwagon, I cannot wait to get started on the second book! Thank you to Lisa for my copy :)