Book Review: Matched

So have you thought about having your first chapter critiqued by our own Ms. Shreditor? Or perhaps your name printed in a book and being immortalized forever? Have you told all your friends about my contest yet? It’s going to be a lucky week, I can feel it! Don't forget to let everyone know about my new book, Ribbon of Darkness. For more details on the contest, see my post from yesterday.

Today’s book review is Matched by Ally Condie. I had heard so much hype about this book I was almost afraid to read it because I thought it wouldn’t live up to my expectations.

But it did.

Matched pulls you into “the Society’s” world pretty quickly as the main character, Cassia, is going to her Matching ceremony where she will be told who her perfect match is going to be. The author does a good job of really working this new world into the narrative and the subtle clues given by the author make it easy to see this world in the reader’s imagination. It’s also done in first person and I truly admired how the author was able to do that. I honestly don’t know if I could ever do that in my own writing.

The world and society that is shown to us in Matched was reminiscent of the world in Hunger Games, but I found Ms. Condie’s writing to be so full and lyrical, it was almost as beautiful as the society in her book was austere.

I loved Ms. Condie’s style and how she incorporated the rich and deep characterizations of her cast of characters into a world that is so detailed it almost becomes another character. It was easy to care for the people we were reading about and to identify with their feelings about the predicaments they found themselves in. I enjoyed the tension between Cassia, Xander, and Ky, and although I didn’t always agree with the choices she made, I couldn’t stop reading because I wanted to find out where Cassia’s choices were going to take her.

The author also uses one of my favorite Dylan Thomas poems throughout the book, so that was another point in its favor. I honestly can’t find enough words to describe how enjoyable this book was for me. (And that says a lot coming from another writer!)

I’m anxiously awaiting the second installment of the series.

Here is the back copy of the book:

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.

Definitely a book to put on your Have To Read list!