Guest Review | Matched | Ally Condie

Guest Review | Matched | Ally Condie

• Tuesday, 4 December 2012

Goodreads is a fantastic place to discover books, I’ve found. I only joined in about July this year, but since then I’ve found so many books that I want to read, which I probably wouldn’t have discovered had I not joined up. Matched, by Ally Condie, is one of them, and one that I really enjoyed.

It follows the story of Cassia who lives in time where the Society rules, and everything is monitored, set-up and controlled; where there are but one Hundred Poems, and one Hundred Songs; where technology is the main form of…well, everything; where you live, what you do, when you die, who you love is all determined by the Officials. When people turn seventeen they are called up to go to a Matching Ceremony where they are  shown who they are matched with for the rest of their lives; who they will marry. When Xander’s face appears on her screen Cassia isn’t really surprised that she’s been Matched with her best friend, but when she see a second face appear she knows that something is wrong.

Being Matched with Xander, but knowing that Ky could also be a possible Match, Cassia is worried and scared of what the Officials will do if they found out. But, as the plot continues, she starts falling in love with Ky, even though she knows she’s Matched with Xander, and you have your typical love triangle emerging. As Cassia starts making her own choices, ones that are not governed by the Officials and the Society, her whole world starts to unravel.

Written in first person, Matched is easy to read with a fast past what-will-happen-next kind of feel to it. There are ups and downs, secret artifacts, love, death, three little coloured pills, too much technology, a bit of hiking and bit of forgotten poetry and although there is another two books to complete the trilogy, Matched finishes in a satisfying way; you know there will be another book, but you’re happy with where things were left for now. You know what I mean?

I give this book a 4/5 star rating. I think that’s because I really did enjoy it, but there are other dystopian books I liked more. I recommend this book for people who like the dystopian genre; people who enjoyed books like The Hunger Games series, and the Divergent Series.

This post was written by guest blogger Anjali.

Photo courtesy of Goodreads.