Book Review: Matched by Ally Condie

Matched
Matched #1
Author: Ally Condie
Pages: 366 pgs
Reading Level: YA
Published: November 30th 2010
Review SOurce: Purchased
Available: Amazon

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.

Oh boy so I'm actually stuck with this review. I will say I pick up Matched because I saw it was compared to another very popular dystopian series. So I think that was my problem from the beginning, I was waiting for Greatness. I think Matched is a very sweet read, but I can't classify it as great in my book. I'm thinking as the series progresses it will fire up like some series I know Love very much. They start off slow and then end with a bang.

Matched for me was just good, it kept a even pace. The characters were simple and easy to understand but they didn't make me fall in love with them. The book was all around neutral if that makes sense. I still will say pick it up and read because Ally Condie gave us a new very realistic world that one could possibly live in. In this world you are basically without choice but everyone seems OK with that pretty much since its safe. Well that all starts to change the day after Cassia has her Matched banquet. She then is thrown what I would call a curve ball and starts to unbalance her and that is where questions begin to arise. You have Xander her Matched and then you also meet Ky who probably was really meant to be her Matched. Well from this point on its Cassia figuring and discovering new and old things in her world.