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.