Review: Matched (Matched, #1) - Ally Condie

Edition: Hardcover  

Pages: 369 pages

Published: November 30th 2010 

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile

ISBN: 0525423648 (ISBN13: 9780525423645)

Genres: Young Adult, Dystopia, Science Fiction, Romance

Rating: 3.5/5


Goodreads Synopsis:  

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. 

Matched had been on my to-be-read list for quite sometime, and last week I finally got the chance to read the first book in the trilogy. I was expecting awesomeness to the nth degree...but I'll say I was a bit disappointed.

I've already read some dystopian books like Divergent, Delirium, Shatter Me, What's Left Of Me, and ofcourse, the Hunger Games, so maybe Matched had a fair amount of  competition to equal - or possibly overtake. Sadly for me, it couldn't overtake or equal said dystopian books. I found it to be a very mainstream novel in the  dystopian genre, the sort that receives a lukewarm reception, but one that no one would acknowledge in the wake of the Divergent series and such. That's just my honest opinion. 

It's not like I didn't enjoy Matched in the least. I truly adore the style in which Allie Condie writes - the figurative speech does more than just mesmerise you. It engulfs you, makes you feel like you're in Cassia's shoes, makes you feel like you're part of the Society. 

And what a Society it is. Think of poisoned honey. Think of something that looks beautiful and exemplary from the outside, but which is barbed and flawed from the inside, behind the veil. That's the real face of the Society Cassia lives in. Everything is preset, decided, for the citizens - from their daily meals to their spouses - by the Officials themselves. No-one is supposed to go against them. And mostly, no-one does think of rebelling, because they've been brainwashed to believe that all the decisions made by the Officials is for their own good, for a perfect life. Cassia is amongst these staunch believers... until the day she first sees the cracks in the presumably pristine glass of the Society. And from that day, Cassia's belief in the system begins to falter, until it all falls apart.

“They are giving us pieces of a real life instead of the whole thing. They have perfected the art of giving us just enough freedom; just enough that when we are ready to snap, a little bone is offered and we roll over, belly up, comfortable and placated like a dog.."


Now Cassia's faced with a big decision - to stay blind, safe, and belong to the Society with no opinion of her own, or to rise up and rebel against the evil. It's game, set....Matched.