Title: Matched
Author: Ally Condie
Genre: YA Dystopia
Series: Matched #1
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Number of Pages: 386
Source: My Copy
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
I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed by this book. I loved the world building, but like in Pandemonium there was no reason given for why the country where Cassia lived turned into a police state where it guarded it's citizens every move. However, I really liked that it did explain what type of art, music and other things were kept & how they chose them.
My main problem with this book was that I never warmed up to either love interest for Cassia. I thought Xander was ok. He was supposed to be the boy next door, the perfect match for Cassia and all of that made him just a little boring. Ky is the one who makes Cassia realize that maybe just maybe there are things worth fighting for and that's it is ok to go against the system and not to believe everything they tell you. Love triangles are tricky because there is always one half that you get to know better, and in this case it was Ky. While I had my problems with both of them I liked how each one made Kassia a better person and forced her to look more closely at the things going on around her.
One nice thing about Matched was that Cassia's parents and family played a big role in this book. I liked how they didn't disappear. They were pivotal in helping Cassia grow as a person and also made her start realizing that maybe everything the government does isn't really for their own safety and that it's ok to break the rules sometimes.
While I didn't love Matched as much as I did Delirium or Divergent, I liked it enough that I am going to continue reading the series. I honestly can't wait to see what happens next to Kassia. She was easy to connect to, and I always love YA heroines that don't wait on the guy to do stuff for them or have insta love.
This book gets a 2 rating for me, but it' because I didn't buy into the love triangle like I wanted to. The writing is really well done, I just wanted more of everything. :)
