Matched

Hey guys! I’m back again, and I managed to publish a whole lot of your reviews so go check those out! I think Angela’s taking up editing now so phew 🙂

This week, I read Matched by Ally Condie and… I have very mixed feelings about the book.

Matched takes place in a dystopian world where everything is carefully controlled by officials, and all things are empirical, or calculated, from the food portions you can eat to the person you marry (with whom you are Matched with at 17 based on compatibility). Cassia, our main character, has been Matched with Xander Carrow, her lifelong best friend, and she is ecstatic about this… until the glitch on her Match card one night. The flash of a different boy’s face appears only for a single second, but it is enough to both terrify and intrigue Cassia. In interacting with the second boy, Ky, Cassia learns more and more about the dark sides of her seemingly utopian world.

Now for my thoughts! Well, first off, the book was very focused on the romance between Ky and Cassia, which I have said time and time again is a No for me. I definitely would have gone for more emphasis on the plot instead of the romance, but this is very subjective, so take it with a grain of salt.

As well, I found it super unrealistic how Cassia only started discovering these dark secrets of her world as soon as she met Ky. I can’t believe she just never wondered about her world or noticed any flaws in the system before her Matching. However, perhaps Cassia simply liked following the rules, and never felt a need to question anything.

My last note is that I felt really bad for Xander. He could definitely see Cassia drifting away from him and that hurt my heart a little, especially as she didn’t tell him about her growing feelings for Ky. This is a completely personal opinion though, so I won’t be letting it bias my rating.

Final score: 7.5/10. This book opened up a lot of possibilities for the rest of the trilogy which is why I gave it that extra .5. This book itself wasn’t my particular cup of tea, but I can see how the rest of the series could get gradually more intriguing and I intend to keep on reading!