Tuesday, August 9, 2011

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!

7 comments:

Debra Erfert said...

This sounds like an exciting premise. Is this a YA? It sounds like it should be although you didn't specifically say. I guess in this kind of a world they could marry them off at the age of 15 or 30 and it might not make a difference except they might fall in love before they get to the alter.

This reminds me of another book (of course everything I read reminds me of another book) called Logan's Run where everyone is supposed to go to the next "life" (they were really zapped and ceremoniously killed) at the tender age of 30, I think, and if you didn't go willingly then you were hunted down and killed. They too were told what to believe, and almost nobody questioned what they had been spoon-fed since birth. But there was an outside world that was free where unbelieving people would run to.

Anna said...

Matched is on my list of to read books. Except I don't know if I want to read it now and have to wait for the next two to come out. Maybe I'll wait until they are all done? Who knows. Hard decision.

Also, Logan's Run sounds interesting. I'll have to add that to my list too.

Anna said...

Ok, so I thought Logan's Run sounded familiar. I've heard of the title and remembered it is a movie also. I've never seen it so I looked it up and watched the trailer. The 70's trailers didn't know how to make movies sound exciting. Maybe I'll stick with the book instead of the movie.

Debra Erfert said...

Don't watch the movie. Hollywood made it a "R" I think. I've seen in on television in the edited version, and I still blushed. sheesh. . .

Julie Coulter Bellon said...

Debra it is YA. I probably should have mentioned that.

Anna, I wondered the same thing about waiting to read it until all three were out, but I'd heard so many great things about it, I decided to see what all the talk was about. And I'm not sorry. :)

Thanks for the comments!

Jewel's Gems said...

Matched is one of my favorite YA novels, and I'm going through withdrawals waiting for Crossed, the sequel:-)

Kaylee Baldwin said...

I'm glad you liked it! I liked this one, too. Can't wait to read the next one.