Book Review: Matched (And The Answers To More Of Your Questions)

Last week, I got a few more questions on the post that was part of my blogoversary:

Petty Witter asked:


What is the one thing guaranteed to put you off a book?

A bad plot. I cannot stand weak plots, ones with holes, or endings that can be seen from afar. I love twists, turns, turnarounds, and anything else you can throw at me.

N. R. Williams asked:


How do you choose the books you read? Do you have an e-reader?

First: blurb. Second: any reviews that are on the cover/jacket. Third: author. Fourth: cover. And, in some cases, if I've heard of the book before. I don't usually care about genre--if I've read a good review, or if something about the book intrigues me, I'll pick it up. :)

Nope. And, at the moment, I prefer it that way. I like reading paper and ink rather than an electric screen.


*****

Title: Matched

Author: Ally Condie

Publisher: Dutton Books

Genre: Dystopian

Page Count: 366

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Cover Rating: 4 out of 5. I like the green, and I like the way they put the girl in the orb. Plus, the font is very Dystopian-ish.

Inside flap:

In The Society, the Officlas decide. 

Who you love. Where you work. When you die. 

Cassia has always trusted their choices. It's hardly any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend is appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knowsn with complete certainty that he is the one . . . until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path no one else has ever dared follow--between perfection and passion.

My expectations: Mixed. I had read positive reviews saying "This is a great book!" and meh reviews saying "This book was a take-off of [insert title here]" and negative reviews saying "This book isn't very good".

About the book: One thing I read several times is that this book is a lot like The Giver by Lois Lowry.


My opinion? This book really was not like The Giver. Mainly because Cassia, the main character, was very different from Jonas, as were the others the book focused on. The Society is similar in many ways, but it never made it into my head that "Yes! This book is like The Giver!"


The writing style I just couldn't get attached to. I felt like the author was trying to keep some distance between the reader and the character, which I don't usually mind, but in this case I found kind of flat. The scenes were not particularly detailed--I would get information on one thing, but not other factors that I really would have preferred to know about. It wasn't a bad style, but it isn't my favorite.

• Plot:

I could guess what happened. In what's probably every single YA book I've read the character goes after--taking from the blurb--"passion". Heck with "perfection". It's always passion, and this was no exception. Some details of the plot kept me going, like what the Society Officials were doing and if there would be revolution. I do love a good revolution.

• Characters:

Let me say this now: I did not like Cassia. At all, really. She was okay at first--I felt as if she was a little annoying but might turn out to have some real potential when I read the opening scene--but I just couldn't get attached to her. Another contrast with The Giver: Jonas cares about the people and citizens of his city and their well-being. Cassia, it seemed to me, does not. It's all KY. And goodness, don't get in her way when it comes to Ky.

Ky himself was interesting. Again, I just couldn't get attached to him. He had his secrets, and it was intriguing that he knew how to write like that, but he wasn't the most spectacular love interest. I liked him better than Cassia, however. He knew what the Society was really like, and what they did to people.

(I felt there were too few emotional obstacles between them. It was just the Officials in their way--and come on, relationships aren't like that. There's conflict between people.)

Xander was normal. He had his faults, but he cared about Cassia and he seemed less willing to just believe than Cassia did. I hope he comes back in the sequel, because I get the feeling he could really have his day.

• Setting/Elements:

The Society intrigued me. Their rules, regulations, laws, restrictions, what's not to find interesting and appalling about a government who destroys art, poetry, writing, everything except 100 works in each section of human expression?

Other: This book is relatively clean for a YA novel. In fact, I wouldn't say that Matched is significantly more violent/etc. than The Giver. It just has a romantic theme.

Do I recommend this book? Not really. I wouldn't say "Don't ever read this book!" but it's not on my list of must-reads.


-----The Golden Eagle