Matched
Ally Condie
2010
Dutton Books
978-0-525-42364-5
In Cassia’s world, everything is controlled by the Society. They decide where you will work, who you will marry, and when you will die. At her Matching Banquet, Cassia anxiously waits to see who will be her ideal mate. The face she sees on the screen is her best friend, Xander. But later, when she goes to look at Xander’s image on her microcard, which contains all sorts of data about her new Match, she sees another face – Ky Markham, a boy who has always kept to himself. The Officials assure her it was just a prank, but now Cassia finds herself drawn to Ky. Until now, she has always accepted the way her Society functions, but what if all of their rules and plans are not in their citizens’ best interests after all?
Matched was a very quick read for me. I was expecting it to be mainly a story of forbidden love, but the Society’s corruption runs much deeper than that. The reader discovers along with Cassia the dubious means the Society uses to maintain control over the citizens, which made me eager to keep reading in order to understand how the Society operates. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Xander, who really does love Cassia, but Cassia does try to be honest with him about her feelings. Condie handles the love triangle well by showing that Cassia really does care for Xander and doesn’t want to hurt him, but Ky is just a better fit for her. I look forward to reading book two, Crossed.