Matched by Ally Condie

Genre: YA Fantasy-Dystopian
Publication Date: November 2010
One Word Review: Good
Author Website: www.allysoncondie.com

First Line: “Now that I've found the way to fly, which direction should I go into the night?"

GoodReads Synopsis: Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate . . . Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.

Kathy’s Review: I’m wavering between a 3 and a 4 on this one. I thought the writing was very well done, I got sucked in at the beginning and there were a few cliffhanger chapters that kept me interested and wanting to find out what happened next. I guess I would lean for a lower rating because by the end it didn’t feel like much happened. I knew going into it that this would be the first in a trilogy and expected a lot of world building, etc. It just seemed like too much world building and not enough action. In fact, there really wasn’t any action, maybe there will be more in the next books? It was interesting to see how compliant everyone is with their lack of freedoms. In a way I think this “future” seems more believable than other dystopian books I have read. It seems little by little people are willing to give up certain freedoms and the end result would be very similar to the world Condie has introduced in Matched. It was slow going, but it was nice to see Cassia realize how import individual choice is and that even though it would make the world “messy” there is nothing more important than freedom.

The other reasons I’m leaning for a lower rating was the story did remind me of the Giver series by Lois Lowry. I also didn’t feel anything where the love-triangle is involved. I liked Xander, I’m almost rooting more for him than Ky. Not that I didn’t like Ky, I did like his character, I personally didn’t feel a whole lot of chemistry between Ky and Cassia.

I did enjoy the book and thought the writing was well done. I’m looking forward to reading book two, Crossed, this fall.

Bookworm Rating: 3.5

Reading Order:
Book One: Matched
Book Two: Crossed
Book Three: