Matched By Ally Condie

September 08, 2012

Date Read: September 3 - 6, 2012
Title: Matched
Author: Ally Condie
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Genres: Young Adult Novel
Rating: 4.5 / 5

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.
~ Goodreads

Matched is another YA novel just like The Perks Of Being A Wallflower but the story is kind of similar with that of The Hunger Games which I will write a book review soon. The only difference is that in Matched the world where Cassia Maria Reyes, aka Cassia, is as perfect as anyone could ever imagine and that is because everything is controlled and determined by the Society, the government running the country. All Cassia and the others need to do is to follow the rules set by the Society and in return of being obedient, they are rewarded with guaranteed long, healthy, and reasonable happy life without any hardships. But the Society control everything even the smallest details such as what food to eat, what movies to watch, what movies to watch, what kind of work to do and not to do, who to marry, how many kids to have, and a lot more.

Yes, every single details are already planned out for the citizens which means that they don't have to worry about anything. All they just need to do is follow what the Society will tell them to do. In short, the Society is sort of the God - who takes away the citizens' free will to decide from themselves which for me is both good and bad. Good because it makes everyone's life easy because everything is right under their noses and that includes knowing when your death will come. Bad because you simply can't make your own decisions and it looks like you are being held captive together with your senses making you a robot.

The Society being such a control-freak is the main focus in Matched because one of the rules of the Society is once a teenager reaches the age of seventeen, they will attend their own Match Banquet, where their matched will be announced to them. Yes, the Society also plays matchmakers and according to them the goal of Matching is "to provide the healthiest possible future citizens for our Society and provide the best chance for interested citizens to experience successful Family Life." In short, the matching is what we know as fixed marriage.

At first Cassia was more than happy with what the Society is doing even the Matching part. After all, she believed in everything that the Society says because she grows up doing so. She was matched with Xander, who she already know because they live in the same Borough as well as they were friends since they are a little kids. Not to forget that Cassia and Xander are the very best friend.

Cassia suddenly questioned and doubted the Society when a glitch in the system showed her someone else's face before seeing her actual Match. Just like any other dystopian world, there is always someone watching over our hero thus making things a little complicated.

I will say that Matched is full of its own twists but they are easily seen but they are interesting enough. The twist are not cliché but they were actually pretty brave and totally brought conflict to the story making a whole new level of story.

Just like in real life where the Government in the Society while we are the heroes that needs to follow each rules set in front of us. And if we don't follow the rules then there will be a corresponding sanction that we need to face. Although in real life, we are still given our own free will but it is always up to us if we are going to abusively use our free will.

I admit despite being YA type story, I really did enjoyed it because I learned a lot from it such as unconditional love, trust, respect and of course the lesson of a give-and-take relationship.

I totally recommend this book and I can't wait to read Crossed and  Reached. Yes! It is a trilogy.

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18 comments

  1. Buti ka pa nabasa mo na yan. Hahaha! I had to put reading it off because I have tours to participate in. :)

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  2. not really a fan of the book.. it seems to cliched.. but I would love to read Perks of Being a Wallflower.. :D

    Cheers~!

    - Justin -
    The World According To Me

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  3. Wow dear!!! Me nga I can't finish a book eh. Nice!!

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  4. I'm still undecided if I'm going to read the trilogy or not. Ang dami kong pending books sobra. :D I've read some fair review about the books so.. I might/might not read them. Meron na akong ebooks dito sa phone, kaso talagang parang last resort ko. :) Have you read Partials? The Maze Runner series? Very good dystopian books.

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  5. ahmmmm masubukan nga maka bili nito sa fullybooked.

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  6. This is quite an interesting storyline. Of course, though everything seems perfect it would be difficult living a life already predetermined by set rules and standards and that's an excellent source of conflict for a good story line.

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  7. If you liked this you should read The Delirium Trilogy by Lauren Oliver.

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  8. I love the story! And it's a trilogy! Yeya, I'm into reading too and still has a lot of books lined up for me to read, but been busy with new boyfriend.. Hehe and blogging + work so for the meantime I put my reading on hold though I still try to read a few pages every now and then. At the moment I'm into book 3 of Mortal Instruments by Cassadra Claire.. Loving it! ;)

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  9. I haven't read the hunger games! Haha. Loser much. But this might be nice to read, iba kasi sa genre na binabasa ko <3 Thanks for the detailed review here!!

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  10. Intriguing plot, it's a bit like The Stepford wives...

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  11. Looks like an exciting read! You got me hooked with Hunger Games.

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  12. interesting :) i'll check this book on goodreads pronto. i need a good book to read, something that i don't usually read. YA books has become a thing of the past since i graduated from high school :D but now i'm actually considering of reading books from YA :D

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  13. Ooh this is actually kind of interesting! I might just get myself to read more books since I'm out of a job and completely out of things to do on weekends. I hope it doesn't get to predictable though. I'd love a story that surprises me. C:

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  14. Wow this sounds like a really good read! I wonder why that 'glitch' happened though haha, I admire how you have time to read books! I'm still trying to put my life back together and be less busy :D

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  15. Wow! The book is interesting but I am not a book worm >.<
    Thanks for sharin' some details tho
    I actually saw The Hunger Games in the movie :) Like it *wink

    I might recommend this to a friend of mine who loves reading nice books

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  16. that is where we are all heading, whether the govt creates their new world order sometime this year. this novel is predicting our future. scary. keep us updated what happens in the other two books.

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  17. Ikaw na ang bookworm! haha d ko nga matapos tapos ang shades of grey. boooo >.<
    But this book seems interesting!

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  18. i miss reading novels. kasi ung iniisip ko now, kesa ibasa ko ng novel, ibabasa ko n lng ng textbooks and ibbgay ko na lng ang time sa blog. hehe


    www.lilpink.info
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