Matched (Matched #1) by Ally Condie Review

In the Society, officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die. 
Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s hardly any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one…
until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow—between perfection and passion.
Matched is a story for right now and storytelling with the resonance of a classic.

Book Title: Matched (Matched #1)

Author: Ally Condie

Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian, Romance

Publication Date:
November 30th 2010 by Dutton Books for Young Readers

          

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Thoughts:

There are several things that I liked, and of course, several I didn't like. For starters, I liked Cassia's character. While she is in love with this guy (not spoiling :p), she doesn't become a spineless mushy ball of feels. I love female characters (and male characters too) whose whole world doesn't revolve around the love interest.

Having said that, I wasn't sold by the romantic angle in the book. For the most part, it seemed a very surface-y love story than something that would compel you to change your beliefs in the society and not  "go gentle" (I had to use the reference xD).

Which, again, relates to another aspect I had trouble with. The conflict in the book. Where is it? Maybe there is one, and it's so deep it went over the top of my head. But honestly, I kept waiting for something to happen, and it just didn't. The only thing that seemed closest to a conflict to me was the part near the ending, about the pills and the Borough. That, I really liked, and changing the names- that did have a cliffhanger feeling to it, but that's about it.

What made me give it a 4 stars then? I really enjoyed being inside Cassia's mind throughout the whole book. It was a nice place to be in. I ABSOLUTELY loved the way her thoughts go on different tangents at times. Both the beginning and the ending of the book are marked by Cassia's thoughts, and you could feel the book coming to a full circle (even though it's just the beginning). You can see how Cassia has changed as a person from her thoughts alone, and also still unchanged. I love how she thinks!

If you read The Hunger Games series and liked it, you should give this one a try. The way everything is described, it's pretty close to THG (perhaps better in some aspects, but I'll leave you to judge that yourself).

Quote love:

 I think of how perhaps the best way to fly would be with hands full of earth so you always remember where you came from, how hard walking could sometimes be.

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