Matched by Ally Condie

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Gateway Nominee

Matched by Ally Condie

369 pages

 

 

Oh my...this was a fantastic book. Cassia is a healthy, normal teen. Except for the fact the 'the society,' or the governing body, decided every little thing for them. They decide where you live, how many children you have, what you eat, what you will do with every minute of your life, even the day that you will die. Everyone approves of this, it is based on mountains of statistics, and it just makes sense. Cassia dresses up for her Matching banquet, where she will learn who the society has chosen for her future marriage partner. She is matched with her best friend, which is unheard of. Everyone is matched with someone they barely know, someone from another borough. She doesn't need the microcard containing Xander's information, for she already knows everything about him. But she pops it in out of curiosity. Xander's photo fades to black, and another fills it spot for just a minute. So, has the society made a huge error, and who is her true match? Will Cassia learn to make decisions for herself, or will the society block her chosen path?

I thought this was an amazingly written book. There is very little of life as we know it in here, everything is controlled and mandated. But I really felt liked Condie valued the intelligence of the readers. There was no long explanation of how the world ended up this way, that was just the way it was. What explanation was needed she worked in seamlessly, like why everyone must die on their 80th birthday. There is a short dialog about a person only living long enough to have lived a full life, but not long enough to become useless. I was completely drawn into Cassia's struggle, to the point I found myself wondering what choices I would make in same situation. I see a lot of love triangles in YA literature lately, like in Hunger Games and Twilight, and Matched has the same scenario. But for once, I have no clear thoughts if Cassia should end up with Ky or Xander. Both are that great. I could probably talk another 30 minutes about this book...but it is Christmas morning so I think I will wake the kiddos so I can open presents. But I am definitely looking forward to the sequel.