Review: Matched by Ally Condie

Book Description via Goodreads:

Paperback, 200 pages

September 20, 2011, Speak

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.

Source: Bought

My Thoughts:

The dystopian world of Matched was a world of bits and pieces. The Society was extremely controlling. There were too many rules, too many don’ts and too many limits. A big chunk of history and of humanity was taken away, destroyed, gone forever.

The Matching system was very intriguing for me. The Officials matched two persons – a boy and a girl – to let them build the healthiest and happiest family possible. Her Match was Xander, her longtime best friend. She couldn’t imagine anyone better but handsome and charming Xander. Cassia has never questioned the system until one day at home she saw the face of her Match, only it wasn’t Xander. It was Ky, one of her friends. Ky was mysterious, intriguing and he had a spark within that Cassia wanted to reach. But Ky wasn’t her Match. He could never be. He was an Aberration.

Cassia had secrets of her own but Ky had darker secrets. As the days passed, the two grew closer together. Their relationship started with a spark of curiosity and a zing of attraction that struck them both. I found myself smiling at their sweet but short moments together. I felt their feelings building up, wave after wave and discovery after discovery, until it reached its peak. Matched was the kind of book that gripped my heart and offered me a deliciously sweet romance and the danger factor of being found out added an exciting thrill.

Condie’s writing was the kind that was so beautiful and so engrossing that it was addicting. I found myself reading lines over and over again. The characters were well developed. I felt that they were real persons interacting here in the real world. Although I found the pace a bit slow, I was engaged in the story.

Matched is a bittersweet romance that will leave readers breathless. I highly recommend this to dystopian readers!

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