Matched- Ally Condie

Matched is a young adult/borderline children’s book that wants very badly to be either The Giver or The Hunger Games. Set in a futuristic world remarkably similar to that of Lois Lowry’s The Giver, all of our free will as a human race has essentially vanished. Calories and food are predetermined, jobs are assigned based on relative strengths, and romantic relationships are determined by the appropriate match of personalities. Cassia is 17 and headed to her Matching Banquet, and to her delight, is matched with her best friend Xander, in a match that everyone classifies as perfect. But the next day, just for a split second while reviewing her “courtship guidelines” the face of another boy shows up, and she knows him too: Ky. So, the question becomes, somewhat predictably, does she go with what is planned and reliable: Xander, or what may actually be her perfect, but unauthorized Match, Ky?

First, let me say for the record that I liked Matched. I like the concept, I like the main character, I like the future world. I was annoyed by the love triangle. Where Divergent was clearly a Hunger Games wannabe and I could not have cared less, this one is more obviously trying to target the audiences of mainstream teen books with its teen love triangle. I wish the author had focused more on the world around the characters, the choices Cassia and her family do have to make that aren’t already predetermined, and the ethics of having a Society that makes your life easier but steals your free will. It’s an interesting concept. I wanted to know more about it.

All in all, a good book and a good use of my time overall. I’ll be reading the sequel eventually, I’m sure. This one was somewhere between a 3 and a 4 for me. But in order from favorite to least favorite of the recent dystopic fiction trilogies, my ranking would be: Hunger Games, Divergent, Matched.