Matched by Ally Condie (Epub)

Description

“[A] superb dystopian romance.” – The Wall Street Journal “Strong feminist ideals and impressive writing that’s bound to captivate.” – The Los Angeles Times In the Society, Officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die.Cassia has always trusted the Society’s choices. And when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, she is certain he’s the one—until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now she is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s ever known and a path no has dared to follow . . . between perfection and the truth.Look for the sequel, CROSSED, and the epic series finale, REACHED!

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “Love triangle + struggle against the powers that be = perfect winter escape.” —MTV.com “Matched introduces a smart young woman attempting to make sense of her dystopic world, à la The Hunger Games. Ally Condie’s debut features strong feminist ideals and impressive writing that’s bound to captivate.” —The Los Angeles Times “[A] superb dystopian romance” —Wall Street Journal “Matched is the hottest YA title since The Hunger Games.” —Entertainment Weekly “A Must Read” —Girls Life Magazine “Condie’s enthralling and twisty dystopian plot is well served by her intriguing characters and fine writing.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “A fierce, unforgettable page-turner.” —Kirkus, starred review “The stunning clarity and attention to detail in Condie’s Big Brother–like world is a feat.” —Booklist “Fans of The Giver will devour this book.” —School Library Journal About the Author Ally Condie is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Matched trilogy and co-author of the Darkdeep middle grade series. She is also the author of the novel Summerlost, an Edgar Award Finalist. A former English teacher, Ally lives with her family outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. Ally has an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and is the founder and director of the nonprofit WriteOut Foundation.allycondie.comTwitter: @allycondie Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. CHAPTER 1 Now that I’ve found the way to fly, which direction should I go into the night? My wings aren’t white or feathered; they’re green, made of green silk, which shudders in the wind and bends when I move—first in a circle, then in a line, finally in a shape of my own invention. The black behind me doesn’t worry me; neither do the stars ahead.I smile at myself, at the foolishness of my imagination. People cannot fly, though before the Society, there were myths about those who could. I saw a painting of them once. White wings, blue sky, gold circles above their heads, eyes turned up in surprise as though they couldn’t believe what the artist had painted them doing, couldn’t believe that their feet didn’t touch the ground.Those stories weren’t true. I know that. But tonight, it’s easy to forget. The air train glides through the starry night so smoothly and my heart pounds so quickly that it feels as though I could soar into the sky at any moment.“What are you smiling about?” Xander wonders as I smooth the folds of my green silk dress down neat.“Everything,” I tell him, and it’s true. I’ve waited so long for this: for my Match Banquet. Where I’ll see, for the first time, the face of the boy who will be my Match. It will be the first time I hear his name.I can’t wait. As quickly as the air train moves, it still isn’t fast enough. It hushes through the night, its sound a background for the low rain of our parents’ voices, the lightning-quick beats of my heart.Perhaps Xander can hear my heart pounding, too, because he asks, “Are you nervous?” In the seat next to him, Xander’s older brother begins to tell my mother the story of his Match Banquet. It won’t be long now until Xander and I have our own stories to tell.“No,” I say. But Xander’s my best friend. He knows me too well.“You lie,” he teases. “You are nervous.”“Aren’t you?”“Not me. I’m ready.” He says it without hesitation, and I believe him. Xander is the kind of person who is sure about what he wants.“It doesn’t matter if you’re nervous, Cassia,” he says, gentle now. “Almost ninety-three percent of those attending their Match Banquet exhibit some signs of nervousness.”“Did you memorize all of the official Matching material?”“Almost,” Xander says, grinning. He holds his hands out as if to say, What did you expect?The gesture makes me laugh, and besides, I memorized all of the material, too. It’s easy to do when you read it so many times, when the decision is so important. “So you’re in the minority,” I say. “The seven percent who don’t show any nerves at all.”“Of course,” he agrees.“How could you tell I was nervous?”“Because you keep opening and closing that.” Xander points to the golden object in my hands. “I didn’t know you had an artifact.” A few treasures from the past float around among us. Though citizens of the Society are allowed one artifact each, they are hard to come by. Unless you had ancestors who took care to pass things along through the years.“I didn’t, until a few hours ago,” I tell him. “Grandfather gave it to me for my birthday. It belonged to his mother.”“What’s it called?” Xander asks.“A compact,” I say. I like the name very much. Compact means small. I am small. I also like the way it sounds when you say it: com-pact. Saying the word makes a sound like the one the artifact itself makes when it snaps shut.“What do the initials and numbers mean?”“I’m not sure.” I run my finger across the letters ACM and the numbers 1940 carved across the golden surface. “But look,” I tell him, popping the compact open to show him the inside: a little mirror, made of real glass, and a small hollow where the original owner once stored powder for her face, according to Grandfather. Now, I use it to hold the three emergency tablets that everyone carries—one green, one blue, one red.“That’s convenient,” Xander says. He stretches out his arms in front of him and I notice that he has an artifact, too—a pair of shiny platinum cuff links. “My father lent me these, but you can’t put anything in them. They’re completely useless.”“They look nice, though.” My gaze travels up to Xander’s face, to his bright blue eyes and blond hair above his dark suit and white shirt. He’s always been handsome, even when we were little, but I’ve never seen him dressed up like this. Boys don’t have as much leeway in choosing clothes as girls do. One suit looks much like another. Still, they get to select the color of their shirts and cravats, and the quality of the material is much finer than the material used for plainclothes. “You look nice.” The girl who finds out that he’s her Match will be thrilled.“Nice?” Xander says, lifting his eyebrows. “That’s all?”“Xander,” his mother says next to him, amusement mingled with reproach in her voice.“You look beautiful,” Xander tells me, and I flush a little even though I’ve known Xander all my life. I feel beautiful, in this dress: ice green, floating, full-skirted. The unaccustomed smoothness of silk against my skin makes me feel lithe and graceful.Next to me, my mother and father each draw a breath as City Hall comes into view, lit up white and blue and sparkling with the special occasion lights that indicate a celebration is taking place. I can’t see the marble stairs in front of the Hall yet, but I know that they will be polished and shining. All my life I have waited to walk up those clean marble steps and through the doors of the Hall, a building I have seen from a distance but never entered.I want to open the compact and check in the mirror to make sure I look my best. But I don’t want to seem vain, so I sneak a glance at my face in its surface instead.The rounded lid of the compact distorts my features a little, but it’s still me. My green eyes. My coppery-brown hair, which looks more golden in the compact than it does in real life. My straight small nose. My chin with a trace of a dimple like my grandfather’s. All the outward characteristics that make me Cassia Maria Reyes, seventeen years old exactly.I turn the compact over in my hands, looking at how perfectly the two sides fit together. My Match is already coming together just as neatly, beginning with the fact that I am here tonight. Since my birthday falls on the fifteenth, the day the Banquet is held each month, I’d always hoped that I might be Matched on my actual birthday—but I knew it might not happen. You can be called up for your Banquet anytime during the year after you turn seventeen. When the notification came across the port two weeks ago that I would, indeed, be Matched on the day of my birthday, I could almost hear the clean snap of the pieces fitting into place, exactly as I’ve dreamed for so long.Because although I haven’t even had to wait a full day for my Match, in some ways I have waited all my life.“Cassia,” my mother says, smiling at me. I blink and look up, startled. My parents stand up, ready to disembark. Xander stands, too, and straightens his sleeves. I hear him take a deep breath, and I smile to myself. Maybe he is a little nervous after all.“Here we go,” he says to me. His smile is so kind and good; I’m glad we were called up the same month. We’ve shared so much of childhood, it seems we should share the end of it, too.I smile back at him and give him the best greeting we have in the Society. “I wish you optimal results,” I tell Xander.“You too, Cassia,” he says.As we step off the air train and walk toward City Hall, my parents each link an arm through mine. I am surrounded, as I always have been, by their love.It is only the three of us tonight. My brother, Bram, can’t come to the Match Banquet because he is under seventeen, too young to attend. The first one you attend is always your own. I, however, will be able to attend Bram’s banquet because I am the older sibling. I smile to myself, wondering what Bram’s Match will be like. In seven years I will find out.But tonight is my night.It is easy to identify those of us being Matched; not only are we younger than all of the others, but we also float along in beautiful dresses and tailored suits while our parents and older siblings walk around in plainclothes, a background against which we bloom. The City Officials smile proudly at us, and my heart swells as we enter the Rotunda.In addition to Xander, who waves good-bye to me as he crosses the room to his seating area, I see another girl I know named Lea. She picked the bright red dress. It is a good choice for her, because she is beautiful enough that standing out works in her favor. She looks worried, however, and she keeps twisting her artifact, a jeweled red bracelet. I am a little surprised to see Lea there. I would have picked her for a Single.“Look at this china,” my father says as we find our place at the Banquet tables. “It reminds me of the Wedgwood pieces we found last year . . .”My mother looks at me and rolls her eyes in amusement. Even at the Match Banquet, my father can’t stop himself from noticing these things. My father spends months working in old neighborhoods that are being restored and turned into new Boroughs for public use. He sifts through the relics of a society that is not as far in the past as it seems. Right now, for example, he is working on a particularly interesting Restoration project: an old library. He sorts out the things the Society has marked as valuable from the things that are not.But then I have to laugh because my mother can’t help but comment on the flowers, since they fall in her area of expertise as an Arboretum worker. “Oh, Cassia! Look at the centerpieces. Lilies.” She squeezes my hand.“Please be seated,” an Official tells us from the podium. “Dinner is about to be served.”It’s almost comical how quickly we all take our seats. Because we might admire the china and the flowers, and we might be here for our Matches, but we also can’t wait to taste the food.“They say this dinner is always wasted on the Matchees,” a jovial-looking man sitting across from us says, smiling around our table. “So excited they can’t eat a bite.” And it’s true; one of the girls sitting farther down the table, wearing a pink dress, stares at her plate, touching nothing.I don’t seem to have this problem, however. Though I don’t gorge myself, I can eat some of everything—the roasted vegetables, the savory meat, the crisp greens, and creamy cheese. The warm light bread. The meal seems like a dance, as though this is a ball as well as a banquet. The waiters slide the plates in front of us with graceful hands; the food, wearing herbs and garnishes, is as dressed up as we are. We lift the white napkins, the silver forks, the shining crystal goblets as if in time to music.My father smiles happily as a server sets a piece of chocolate cake with fresh cream before him at the end of the meal. “Wonderful,” he whispers, so softly that only my mother and I can hear him.My mother laughs a little at him, teasing him, and he reaches for her hand.I understand his enthusiasm when I take a bite of the cake, which is rich but not overwhelming, deep and dark and flavorful. It is the best thing I have eaten since the traditional dinner at Winter Holiday, months ago. I wish Bram could have some cake, and for a minute I think about saving some of mine for him. But there is no way to take it back to him. It wouldn’t fit in my compact. It would be bad form to hide it away in my mother’s purse even if she would agree, and she won’t. My mother doesn’t break the rules.I can’t save it for later. It is now, or never.I have just popped the last bite in my mouth when the announcer says, “We are ready to announce the Matches.”I swallow in surprise, and for a second, I feel an unexpected surge of anger: I didn’t get to savor my last bite of cake.“Lea Abbey.”Lea twists her bracelet furiously as she stands, waiting to see the face flash on the screen. She is careful to hold her hands low, though, so that the boy seeing her in another City Hall somewhere will only see the beautiful blond girl and not her worried hands, twisting and turning that bracelet.It is strange how we hold on to the pieces of the past while we wait for our futures.There is a system, of course, to the Matching. In City Halls across the country, all filled with people, the Matches are announced in alphabetical order according to the girls’ last names. I feel slightly sorry for the boys, who have no idea when their names will be called, when they must stand for girls in other City Halls to receive them as Matches. Since my last name is Reyes, I will be somewhere at the end of the middle. The beginning of the end.The screen flashes with the face of a boy, blond and handsome. He smiles as he sees Lea’s face on the screen where he is, and she smiles, too. “Joseph Peterson,” the announcer says. “Lea Abbey, you have been matched with Joseph Peterson.”The hostess presiding over the Banquet brings Lea a small silver box; the same thing happens to Joseph Peterson on the screen. When Lea sits down, she looks at the silver box longingly, as though she wishes she could open it right away. I don’t blame her. Inside the box is a microcard with background information about her Match. We all receive them. Later, the boxes will be used to hold the rings for the Marriage Contract.The screen flashes back to the default picture: a boy and a girl, smiling at each other, with glimmering lights and a white-coated Official in the background. Although the Society times the Matching to be as efficient as possible, there are still moments when the screen goes back to this picture, which means that we all wait while something happens somewhere else. It’s so complicated—the Matching—and I am again reminded of the intricate steps of the dances they used to do long ago. This dance, however, is one that the Society alone can choreograph now.The picture shimmers away.The announcer calls another name; another girl stands up.Soon, more and more people at the Banquet have little silver boxes. Some people set them on the white tablecloths in front of them, but most hold the boxes carefully, unwilling to let their futures out of their hands so soon after receiving them.I don’t see any other girls wearing the green dress. I don’t mind. I like the idea that, for one night, I don’t look like everyone else.I wait, holding my compact in one hand and my mother’s hand in the other. Her palm feels sweaty. For the first time, I realize that she and my father are nervous, too.“Cassia Maria Reyes.”It is my turn.I stand up, letting go of my mother’s hand, and turn toward the screen. I feel my heart pounding and I am tempted to twist my hands the way Lea did, but I hold perfectly still with my chin up and my eyes on the screen. I watch and wait, determined that the girl my Match will see on the screen in his City Hall somewhere out there in Society will be poised and calm and lovely, the very best image of Cassia Maria Reyes that I can present.But nothing happens.I stand and look at the screen, and, as the seconds go by, it is all I can do to stay still, all I can do to keep smiling. Whispers start around me. Out of the corner of my eye, I see my mother move her hand as if to take mine again, but then she pulls it back.A girl in a green dress stands waiting, her heart pounding. Me.The screen is dark, and it stays dark.That can only mean one thing. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Unfortunately, this title didn’t work well for me. The heroine of the story spent far too much time wondering which boy was the right one for her. It was a little low on substance for me. In other YA dystopian novels, there is a conflict to be solved and there may be a light romance in the background of the story. This story is heavy on the romance and light on the conflict. Additionally, all three characters involved in the romantic triangle seem rather bland and none of them seem to have much of a connection with each other. The heroine of the story does not come across as particularly bright, and it’s difficult to see why either male character would be drawn to her. I’m afraid that halfway through the book, I was still waiting for something of consequence to happen. The situations that seemed like they could have led to something don’t get much of an explanation, and by the time they are explained, you really don’t care anymore.

⭐Edit: I just read some spoilers and just like that…. I won’t be continuing the series lmao. Not worth my time. My rating stays the same for this one though.So this book was just okay for me. Not horrible by any means. I actually plan to continue the series because I’m curious about it now. But it was only okay.I couldn’t connect with the story until almost exactly 50% of the way through. The world, the love interests, everything seemed so forced.The world isn’t really anything special. It’s actually pretty mild for a dystopian even with the pills thing. The society in this book at least is mild. That’s not to say it doesn’t get worse later. I’m sure it does. So I’m excited for it to actually pick up a bit.I do love the family dynamic in this, and later as you learn of all the new people who want to fight this system, it becomes a lot more enjoyable and a lot easier to warm to characters. The emotion starts to spill out.I’m genuinely rooting for some of the families here and have even gotten watery eyed a few times at how unfair things seem to be.This book is marketed as having a love triangle and honestly… I don’t even really see it. The love in this book is weird. Her match is with Xander and he’s hardly in the book. His love for cassia isn’t believable at all. Maybe that’s on purpose- but I kind of doubt it.Cassias love for ky is awkward and forced for more than half of the book, although he’s described as being her passion choice. I don’t feel the passion. Though I do see the romance now that the books ending, and I do prefer ky. But I wonder if that’s because Xander is missing most of the book (not typical for love triangles, that actually want to be built lol), or if it’s because the book just wants the reader to root for ky. I know bias is somewhat normal with love triangles… but I don’t feel like the book even developed or gave Xander a real chance. Hell… I don’t even feel anything towards their friendship.Cassia was also kind of just…. annoying… with her weird obsession with ky in random and inappropriate situations. Half of the time him even being brought up didn’t make sense. This was the author trying to force the love I guess. But meh. This felt more like a romance with a few weird things thrown in. The society wasn’t actually very strong or strict at all.I love the message of the book, I actually really liked the characters by the end too and I’m rooting for them! Though for a society that’s always watching… the characters are able to get away with way too much. I really hope this all pulls together more in the next one!

⭐Too much of the book is spent on intro. Nothing interesting happens until the end. Not like Hunger Games in any way. One difficulty in the book is an overemphasis describing the bland nature of the controlling government. I was 90% into the book before something interesting happened, and even then it was sedate. Even the details that are supposed to be shocking, are just plain not interesting.Contrast that with 1984, where Winston is in constant misery, being watched everywhere, and having a telescreen that is a controlling. The whole mood is so much better described in the book 1984. Also, there is no real hook to make me interested in the next book. It seems like a book purposely written to be part of a series.

⭐I don’t usually read Young Adult fiction, it’s not usually my preference or something I relate to or enjoy, however, this book was so interesting and powerfully consuming that it had me hooked from the first page. I couldn’t put it down. This was a powerful, character driven novel–an example on how to write a book, how to develop a plot through intriguing characters and intense situations. Ky was beautiful, strong, extremely intelligent and intense. Their relationship was advanced through their powerful stories and through fierce circumstances. Xander was also beautiful, strong, and very intelligent. You think he’s perfect and it makes you sad that she can’t love him like he loves her. But through animated dialogue you find out he’s not perfect and yet you still like him, you still feel bad for him, he’s still wonderful and you hope things turn out for him. He too was an example of perfect character development that moved the story along. Then there was Cassia’s other relationships, her brother, her father, her mother, even her grandfather who was gone after the first five or so chapters but was such a strong long lasting character that he affects her and the rest of her family throughout the rest of the book. Her grandfather also helps to develop and advance the plot. His character and situation was so important to the advancement of the story line and was handled perfectly. All the characters were so important and developed so well even her relationship with the official was perfection. You hated her and yet it intrigued you, made you want to read more. So, my opinion and review of Matched… The perfect example of a character driven dystopian novel. One-click today if you like strong female characters, intense male characters, with angst thrown in and powerful situations that will keep you turning the pages while cooking dinner and late into the night until the very last page. And then one-clicking on the next in the series, Crossed. Yes, can’t wait!

⭐Matched is a dystopian YA fiction novel. I love these types of books but sometimes feel they can a little bit same-y. But I genuinely feel that Matched brings something new to the table. Cassia lives in The Society after the warming (presumes global warming) the society was formed and now everyone can lead their perfect lives. The society uses odds and probability to determine everything from the best job for you, to the person you are ‘matched’ with and subsequently marry and have children. Meals are nutritious, not tasty. Nobody cooks, every hour of the day is laid out for you and when you’re 80 you die. Cancer and other deadly diseases no longer exist. Life is pure perfection. Except when it isn’t. Cassia has had no doubt that the society has her best interests in mind, until she is matched with her best friend and someone else pops up on the screen. Someone else she knows. Suddenly, everything she thinks she knew and understood, her whole way of life is thrown into question. Book one was definitely a slower pace than I’d expect from the next two in the series. This isn’t a criticism, it needed to be slow in order to fully build the world Cassia inhabits, and I really liked that, there’s nothing worse than reading a book about a fictional futuristic world and not understanding what happens in that society. I liked Cassia because she wasn’t the obvious choice for the heroine. Prior to the issue at her matching she’s never rebelled against the system or made any kind of infraction. So it was great to read her and experience the way her feelings changed. I’ll definitely be getting the next two books in this series!

⭐The premise of this book is massively intriguing – I bought it on a whim because although I’m not usually into romances I thought this would include a lot of the dystopian themes. And for the first hundred pages, I adored this book. It’s well written and the conflict is interesting. The author clearly loves poetry and sometimes the narrative sounds like a poem, too. The characters are interesting and relatable and I wanted to know how it ended.But then I read the next two hundred pages, put the book down, and felt kind of dissappointed. The story is extremely slow. Not much happens for the majority of the book. Every time you think they’re about to get caught out or punished, or that something’s going to happen to spur the action on, the narrative pulls back at the last second and offers more of the same. The action only really kicks in during the last thirty or so pages.Of course if you’re more into the teenage love story then you’ll probably love this. But I was hoping for an edgy, futuristic dystopian novel.Overall I’d say I did enjoy this book, if nothing else because it’s very well written. I wish it had a little more action and was faster-paced, but that’s personal preference. Give it a whirl and see for yourself.

⭐Every dystopia has a different “cure” for today’s problems. Whether it’s teenagers fighting to their death in an arena to pay for society’s historic crimes against the government; dividing society into factions depending on the different virtues people exhibit, at the expense of all other virtues; or eradicating love and calling it a disease, every dystopian society has based itself on one ideal in particular to make the “perfect” society. In Matched, the main idea is control. If the government makes all life’s big decisions for its people (who you marry, where you live, what job you do, how many children you have, even when you die), there will be no more crime and everyone can live in harmony. When the government even controls what information you have access to (choose from the 100 Songs or the 100 Poems or the 100 Stories or the 100 Paintings etc. but you won’t be able to get your hands on anything else, and forget about being taught how to write – creativity is discouraged), how can you ever know not to trust them? How can you ever know that once society was very different and that it wasn’t so bad? That’s the situation our heroine Cassia is in until the day she is Matched – the day she finds out who she will spend the rest of her life with. On that day, everything changes. Why? Because not only has she been matched with her best friend from childhood Xander, but another face also flickers on the screen as her Match: the face of Ky, an Aberration who is permitted to live in society but without privileges, such as being Matched. So if Ky is not supposed to be Matched, why did Cassia see his face?This “glitch” changes everything for Cassia. It doesn’t matter how much Society tells her that she should not have seen Ky’s face, the fact that she saw it causes her to wonder about Ky. Is he her perfect Match after all? And if he is, does that mean that Society’s system has failed because he’s an Aberration or does it mean that it works because it Matched her with someone she now finds herself drawn to? Now the more Cassia sees Ky, the more she is intrigued by him and the more he draws her into a world she barely knew existed. He teaches her how to write and he teaches her that there was once more to life than what Society would have people believe. At the heart of it all is poetry, and some beautiful poetry is included here, so treasured by Cassia because not only is it a gift from Ky, but because society completely outlaws it. Matched chronicles Cassia’s journey as she wakes up from the controlled slumber everyone in the Society is under and begins to question what is going on around her for the first time.The reason Matched works so well is because most of us live in a society where freedom is one of our most precious commodities. For many of us, to live in society that controls our every thought and action Nineteen Eighty-Four-style is the worst society imaginable. For dictators, the best way to crush rebellion is to prevent original thought and to limit what information your subjects have and as there are societies in the world today similar to this, it’s not hard to conceive of the Society of Matched really existing. Likewise, it’s easy to see how a teenager who sees a flaw in a perfect society might begin to rebel. For me, that was the best part of Matched because it felt so real in that sense.The problem it does have is characterization. Honestly it’s the same flaw a lot of YA novels have, but I found the characters to be almost a little bland. Cassia definitely has her moments, though, and you have to admire her courage to rebel the way she does and her desire to seek freedom. I can’t say the lack of real depth in the characters stopped me from enjoying Matched, and while the story isn’t full of action, Condie’s writing is detailed and descriptive making it a pleasure to read.The trilogy is now available for the whole of Matched and I wholly encourage everyone to read the series, though Matched is without a doubt the best of the three. It’s thought-provoking and an interesting take on the YA dystopia; a must-read for lovers of dystopia!

⭐This is the first in yet another young adult dystopian fiction trilogy. It’s not clear whether Matched is set in a future version of America, or elsewhere. What we do know, though, is that the Society not only controls everything (from meals and clothing to employment and death) but also predicts everything, based on huge amounts of data amassed over an individual’s life. Cassia has been waiting years to be `matched’ – paired by the Society with her ideal partner for marriage, someone with whom she is predicted to be happy and successful – which means she is both confused and troubled when an error means she is shown a second match. In the tradition of the genre, this one apparently small glitch in the system causes Cassia to begin doubting the goodness of the Society and she soon finds herself questioning its motives and resisting its control.Even before Cassia starts questioning the world she has grown up in, we get glimpses of the darker side of the Society. Mentions are made of Aberrations and Anomalies – people who, for whatever reasons, are excluded from the Society. Citizens must carry three coloured pills with them at all times, one of which has never been taken by anyone Cassia knows but which is the subject of a number of rumours. And, perhaps most desolately of all, cultural artefacts are carefully controlled. There are only one hundred poems in existence, only one hundred songs and one hundred films… Even those that do exist cannot be owned, but only printed out on paper that quickly disintegrates. Unlike Panem in Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games, this is not a state which rules through violence – but this cultural repression is terrifying in its own way. There is also something sinister about a state which appears peaceful and full of concern for its citizens (carefully tailoring meals for every individual to ensure their specific nutritional needs are met, for example), but which seems to be using that outward image to paper over secrets and details.The world that Ally Condie creates is a rich and compelling one, which gives rise to many questions – the answers to which we assume will be revealed gradually across the trilogy. Cassia is perhaps not as strong a protagonist as her equivalent in The Hunger Games, Katniss – I didn’t have such a clear image of Cassia’s appearance, and I don’t think she is so straightforwardly sympathetic. But Ally Condie does a good job of getting inside her head and portraying her conflicting emotions and priorities. In a continuation of the parallels with The Hunger Games, Cassia finds herself torn between two male characters, neither of whom she has a straightforward relationship with. Both Xander and Ky are likeable and not without an air of intrigue, so I did find myself empathising with Cassia’s dilemma.Her choice between conforming and rebelling is a difficult one – more so than it is for Katniss. In The Hunger Games, any rebellion is punished with violence or even death. It’s horrific but it’s known. In Matched, the fate of those who resist or rebel is less clear. Banishment seems likely, but to where and to do what? Are the red pills involved in punishment, and what do they do? There is a very strong sense that the Society does not tell people everything, that behind the veneer of concern and progress are numerous, dark secrets. Again, this is very different from the Capitol in The Hunger Games, which does not shy away from telling citizens exactly why tributes are sent into the Games and what fate awaits them there. For me, this secretive world of unknowns is perhaps more terrifying and makes Cassia’s decisions that bit more difficult.Matched does move at a slower pace than some other young adult fiction like The Hunger Games, Twilight and Harry Potter. It also has a strong romantic thread running through it, so (like Twilight, although to a lesser extent) might be more popular amongst female readers than male. But it’s definitely worth a read if you’re a fan of dystopian fiction.

⭐I stopped reading this half way through, I think the book is quite well written for a teen fiction book, however the story is really just a massive copy of The Hunger Games, Divergent and other post-apocalyptic books. It reminds me of when 50 shades of Grey of written, and then suddenly a barrage of erotic novels bombarded the book market seeking to capitalise on the huge interest shown in a book of the exact same genre. As people recognise that there may be several differences, a formula begins to arise that seem very similar to other books. The teen who is a little bit different, has something happen that proves she is or someone close to her is, those with the difference “attempt” to hide this, but suddenly it comes out and there is a threat to their lives, there will be a fight to make it a happy ending. Books that follow this in some form are Harry potter,twilight, divergent, mortal instruments, lord of the rings and many others including this.

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