Book Review: Matched by Ally Condie

 I just finished reading or should I say devouring the book Matched by Ally Condie.

This woman can write!

From the first page, Matched put me in a state of anxiety, and I mean that in the best way.  

I was hooked!

Cassia lives in an America that is run by a totalitarian government.  Her and her family are always being watched.  Every angle of her life is chosen for her from what she eats, where she lives, schooling, who she will marry and eventually when she dies. 

Matched starts with 17 year-old Cassia attending her matching ceremony; where it will be presented who her perfect match is.  All in attendance watch on a huge port who it will be.  Cassia is thrilled to learn her match is her best friend, Xander.  The society has chosen well, but when Cassia returns home with her match packet to review the guidelines, something goes horribly wrong.  She sees in the packet Xander was not meant to be her match, but someone else named Ky.  Was this a trick?  Who would mess with someone’s match.  She’s assured by her officer that Xander is her match, but Cassia can’t help but wonder.  For the first time, she considers the society isn’t always perfect and maybe they shouldn’t be making all her choices for her.  At the age of 80, her grandfather is assigned to die.  At his final ceremony, he privately tells Cassia to fight, to “not go gently” and that the government has it all wrong.  In her last visit with him, Cassia’s grandfather introduces her to a poem she has never heard of, which ignites a fire in her for more knowledge and more freedoms.  This sets in motion a fight in understanding why we think the way we think, why we follow even when we know it isn’t right and ultimately, what we are willing to sacrifice for love.

I’ve already started the sequel Crossed and so far, it’s just as great.

How’s your summer reading going?