All her life, Cassia has never had a choice. The Society dictates everything: when and how to play, where to work, where to live, what to eat and wear, when to die, and most importantly to Cassia as she turns 17, whom to marry. When she is Matched with her best friend Xander, things couldn't be more perfect. But why did her neighbor Ky's face show up on her match disk as well?
I have had this on my shelf to read forever. I finally worked it into my reading list. It was pretty good.
It's standard fare for YA dystopian. The world isn't extremely fleshed out, though. I got to the end and was shocked there wasn't more. Yes, we have the expected cliffhanger to lead you right into book 2, but the story just seemed...lacking, maybe? You get the obligatory love triangle, of course. I didn't mind this one, though. Cassia is just discovering who she is, so she waffles, and that is ok. Ky and Xander are both good dudes, and she loves them for different reasons. Like I said, standard YA dystopian fare here, and that's ok. It hits its mark.
Enough good stuff to get me into book 2. Eventually. 3 stars.
I had discovered this book on Amazon and after reading a sample I was hooked! I got a copy a few months later and blew through it quick. Here are my thoughts:
I have to agree with the other reviews that Matched is similar to The Giver. But there are some differences that make each story their own.
The Giver asks the question "Would people be truly happy having/experiencing exactly the same as everyone else?" Everything in The Giver is gray and bland. Not just the clothes the people wear, but in literally everything around them. Somehow, in this world that The Giver exists in, colors do not. Everyone's sexual drive is just as bland. As soon as any preteen or teen shows sexual desire they are forced to take a pill to suppress their libido.
Matched asks the question "Do people love their spouses because the matching system worked …
I had discovered this book on Amazon and after reading a sample I was hooked! I got a copy a few months later and blew through it quick. Here are my thoughts:
I have to agree with the other reviews that Matched is similar to The Giver. But there are some differences that make each story their own.
The Giver asks the question "Would people be truly happy having/experiencing exactly the same as everyone else?" Everything in The Giver is gray and bland. Not just the clothes the people wear, but in literally everything around them. Somehow, in this world that The Giver exists in, colors do not. Everyone's sexual drive is just as bland. As soon as any preteen or teen shows sexual desire they are forced to take a pill to suppress their libido.
Matched asks the question "Do people love their spouses because the matching system worked well in picking them out? Or do they love their spouse because they've been told to?" Anytime after their seventeenth birthday teens in Matched attend a Matching ceremony where they learn who their future spouse will be. If they choose not to be Matched, they can't be married. They only get the mate the Society choses for them, or they'll be single till death.
After being Matched each teen gets a microcard full of their spouses information and rules for dating. Our leading Lady Cassia is shocked to learn that her card has a glitch and instead of presenting her with info on her match, she gets info on someone who can't be matched at all. Throughout her story, the Society that she loved and trusts becomes less lovable and trustworthy with leads her ask what Haddaway has been asking since 1993, "What is love?"
Despite the similarities to the Lois Lowry classic, if you love dystopian novels that pick apart what it means to be human, you'll love this book.
This would really be a 3.5, maybe a 4. Initially, I was disappointed that it would get really teeny- by that I mean blah blah romance, boys, etc. And I still want more dystopia less romance- but I was won over by the end of the book. It was difficult to put down, even though I never got particularly attached to the characters, the plot moved nicely. There are a few moments where your disbelief will need to be squashed, and our heroines birth from conformist to rebel is a little too quick in my view, but i will be recommending it next year to students, especially girls. (note- arabic students- nothing haram except two kisses, no religion or pork, rated PG)
Picked this one on Kindle store because it looked like easy reading in a dystopian world - sounded like good ingredients :)
First book of said trilogy is the story of Cassia, a 17 year-old girl. And when you're 17 year-old, in the Society, you get Matched (hence the title) to a life partner and you get a "vocation" - matched to a job, say. And everything seems to work quite well within expected parameters. But there's a glitch in Cassia's match - she has a glimpse of another boy than her "official" Match. And, obviously, on top of this, the Society kind of starts to crumble/not work as well as it did...
If you want to categorize it, it's in the "young adult fiction" section - although I'm not exactly sure what this is, I'm not sure my reading habits changed that much between, say, my 15 years old …
Picked this one on Kindle store because it looked like easy reading in a dystopian world - sounded like good ingredients :)
First book of said trilogy is the story of Cassia, a 17 year-old girl. And when you're 17 year-old, in the Society, you get Matched (hence the title) to a life partner and you get a "vocation" - matched to a job, say. And everything seems to work quite well within expected parameters. But there's a glitch in Cassia's match - she has a glimpse of another boy than her "official" Match. And, obviously, on top of this, the Society kind of starts to crumble/not work as well as it did...
If you want to categorize it, it's in the "young adult fiction" section - although I'm not exactly sure what this is, I'm not sure my reading habits changed that much between, say, my 15 years old and now :P It's pretty cheesy/soppy at times, but I liked the dystopia depiction (well, I usually like those parts anyway, it always amazes me that people are able to invent/describe a universe that holds at least well enough for me :) ) Anyway, I liked it enough to start the second one after I finished the first one and to continue reading until my phone got out of battery a few minutes before arriving in Zürich :-)
readersdialogue.blogspot.com/2011/01/matched.html Matched is a book that really makes you think. It touches on many issues worth thinking about - love, censorship, choices, freedom. Many parts of the book remind me of 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, with constant supervision and even dream-tracking, and the way only a select few works of art, literature, and poetry are allowed to survive. And I think Ally Condie does a really good job of exploring these topics for teens the way those books do for adults. I love that the book is open-ended, that there is no neat resolution, because that is a mark of a book that really is meant to make you think.
But even so, it was great to have compelling characters. Cassia, Ky, and Xander are all interesting in their own ways, and the other smaller characters add to the construction of what's accepted and what's considered breaking out in …
readersdialogue.blogspot.com/2011/01/matched.html Matched is a book that really makes you think. It touches on many issues worth thinking about - love, censorship, choices, freedom. Many parts of the book remind me of 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, with constant supervision and even dream-tracking, and the way only a select few works of art, literature, and poetry are allowed to survive. And I think Ally Condie does a really good job of exploring these topics for teens the way those books do for adults. I love that the book is open-ended, that there is no neat resolution, because that is a mark of a book that really is meant to make you think.
But even so, it was great to have compelling characters. Cassia, Ky, and Xander are all interesting in their own ways, and the other smaller characters add to the construction of what's accepted and what's considered breaking out in this dystopian society. I love that Cassia is not at all passive, that she's a thinker and can think for herself even before everything starts to change, before Ky starts to affect her. This book is very like Delirium in its concept, and that was the one thing that bothered me about Delirium - that Lena seemed a bit weak until Alex started bending the way she thought about things. Cassia is a strong girl in her own right, and the choices she makes are all her own.
I love the writing style, too. The story speeds along, slowing down at fitting moments, speeding up when confusion abounds. I felt completely involved in the new Society, and I actually physically felt fear when Cassia faced choices or was called out by Officials!
This is a really great book - thought-provoking and a great love story at the same time.
