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.
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.
