Review: Matched by Ally Condie
Title: Matched
Hardcover, 366 pages
Author: Ally Condie
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Publication Date: November 30, 2010
Source: Book Expo America
Buy: Amazon
Book Summary:
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 . . . until she sees Ky Markham’s face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.
The Society tells her it’s a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she’s destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can’t stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society’s infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.
Review:
Starting Matched was scary for me because of all of the praise it has received. The cover is pretty enough that I didn’t mind admiring that quality rather than risking changing my opinion by reading… for awhile, anyway 
Matched takes place in a world not like our own – a genre called dystopian. Ally Condie does an excellent job of painting the new world for us, which is imperative in a dystopian novel, since too many new things and poor explanations can keep me from reading further (case in point: Incarceron. sigh). It wasn’t pages and pages of explaining what is going on around us, either – it was woven in to Cassia’s story, which had me entranced from page one. I loved the society Condie built, and felt for the characters – I was squirming in my seat reading some of the events in the first few chapters, and each of the details were carefully planned.
The relationship of Cassia and Ky seemed a little off to me in the beginning – they didn’t spend much time together before their feelings for each other changed drastically, but I suppose I could have been caught up in other aspects of the story.
Matched is one of my favorites this year, and certainly an excellent dystopian. There are two other books planned for this series – I’m not sure if it is meant to be a trilogy or if there will possibly be more, but Matched #2 will be a pre-order for me for sure.
Buy: Amazon
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I didn’t love this one as much as you did but I enjoyed it quite enough to read the second book. I’m hopeful we’ll get some good history about The Society and a bit more action in Crossed.
Seems there HAS to be lots of action in Crossed, right? If there isn’t I would probably change my opinion quite a bit.
I have heard so many good things about “Matched”, it seems everyone is giving it real good ratings! Looks like this is one I’ll have to get.
Yes, certainly! Actually, you should e-mail me your address
I really enjoyed Matched but thought it was mis-categorized with the dystopian banner. I feel it is much more of a Negative Utopian novel and would have done the world a great service if it had been marketed as such
You’re good with the categorizations! I wish I were better at that. I don’t know the difference between all of them unless it is painfully obvious – i.e. a vampire makes it paranormal. I did see a finished copy today at the store kind of mixed in with adult novels, so it will be interesting to see if those copies are still there when I go back…
Twitter: lenoreva
I totally missed this cover/title reveal!! Thanks for bringing it to my attention