This review was originally posted on http://threecatsandabook.blogspot.com/As soon as I read the blurb on the cover of Matched, I knew I had to read it.
“On her seventeenth birthday, Cassia meets her match. Society dictates he is her perfect partner for life. Except he’s not.”
Except he is.
Cassia lives in a dystopian society where everything is sorted out for you. Where you live, where you work and who you marry. Cassia has been best friends with Xander since they were little babies. And guess what – this is not a spoiler because it happens on like page 15 – Cassia is Matched to Xander. And let me tell you, Xander is quite a catch. First of all, they are best friends. They have the best relationship together, they are thick as thieves. Xander is funny, good looking and other girls seem to be into him. But Cassia isn’t of course. No, she has to fall in love with another guy (this happens on page 35, so it’s not really a spoiler either). She could live happily ever after with Prince Charming but she has to go all Katniss Everdeen on Society.
That’s the problem I have with this book. The society (aka “ the Society”) created by Ally Condie isn’t terrible enough. Sure, it is awful that people can’t choose who they want to marry, how many children they want to have and when they’ll die. But the thing is, this society takes great care in sorting everything out. They’ll Match you with literally your perfect match. All their efforts seem to be in your interest. Keeping the destroying of almost every piece of art aside, this dystopian society isn’t terrible enough to motivate Cassia’s rebellion.
I would recommend this book to anyone who doesn’t mind love triangles and who’s looking forward to reading a trilogy about a dystopian society. Matched is the first book in this trilogy and I feel like the Society will get more horrible throughout the series.
I don’t think that I will read the next two books in this trilogy because Cassia choosing Ky over Xander and risking so much to be with him, made me really dislike her. It’s illogical why she would chose Ky over Xander when Xander is so much more likeable than Ky. This was too much for me to be able to enjoy this book, but if you think you wouldn’t mind that so much, I would definitely give it a go.