Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Book Review ~ Matched


Matched by Ally Condie, book 1 in the Matched Trilogy
Published: November 2010
Genre: Teen Science Fiction
Next Book: Crossed
Cover Art Courtesy of NoveList

From Matched-book.com:

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.



YA Staff Review:
This is a great science fiction "what if?" story. In the future, after we have almost destroyed the earth and ourselves, the Society has risen to power. The Society has cured almost all disease. Meals are specially prepared for each person taking into account their personal dietary needs and fitness is scheduled for everyone. Life is "simple," everyone wears the same clothes, listens to the same 100 songs, reads the same 100 poems, watches the same 100 movies, everyone's spouse is chosen for them. There isn't any creativity or spontinaity. And yet everyone seems perfectly happy with it, or are they?

Cassia has done exactly what the Society has told her since she was born. Then after her 17th birthday and matching ceremony things drastically change for her. Does she go back to living the life Society has planned for her or will she embrace the words of the poem, "Do not go gentle into that good night, rage, rage against the dying of the light."

This story is unique and mildly suspenseful. It is the first in the Matched Trilogy. Crossed is next and just came out in November 2011. When you go to Matched-Book.com you can even see who the Society would match you with!

If you liked Matched Try: