Matched (Matched, #1)

by Ally Condie

[celinenyx]

Another of the young adult "must read" dystopian list, Matched left me disappointed by the potential that wasn't fulfilled.

In Matched everyone follows the rules of Society. The Society calculates what gives most people a happy life. For example, you die at eighty, no matter what. You get Matched to your life partner by statistics and probabilities. Calorie intake is measured so everyone is healthy and strong. But then something goes wrong, and a mistake is made during Cassia's Matching. Should she trust Society, or think for herself?

I absolutely adored the world building in this one. It was amazing. In contrast to the extremely weird world that was created in DeStefano's Wither, this world is actually likely. I liked the fact that they use science to create boundaries for personal life. The first half of the book, where pretty much all the world building is was extremely well done.

When I started this book I was completely blown away. I thought, this is going to be epic! And then the love triangle happened.

And the worst thing about the love triangle is that Cassia is NOT in love. Let's recap what happened (it's in the blurb, so not a spoiler). The night of her Matching, when she's at home and staring at her screen thingy, she is supposed to see the face of her match, Xander. Xander has been her best friend since forever. But then, another face lights up! And it's Ky, a guy she has known since forever but never thought was interesting!

And from that moment all she can think about is Ky, Ky, Ky. O wait, I shouldn't think about Ky but Xander! Ky. Ky.

She NEVER had ANY interest in the guy, and then she sees his picture and she's head over heels for him. If Cassia was one of my friends I'd smack her. Seriously.

Even though Ms Condie is amazing in the world building department, she isn't that strong in the character building. Almost every single character is rather bland and just a "filler". The worst thing for me is that Ky was an extremely bland character. How can we fall in love with him if he's nothing but someone with a pretty bad past? Boo hoo, your parents were killed. That's not a reason to fall in love with someone.

I'm so for Xander. At least he's smart and brave, something Ky doesn't have going for him. But, Cassia treats Xander like shit for the whole book. Since they're Matched, they're boyfriend and girlfriend, but Cassia only wants to spend time with Ky, hold his hand, whisper poetry in his ear. And the whole while she thinks "oh yeah, I know what I'm doing is bad. I should tell Xander, but to be honest I don't feel like it now. I'll tell him in a few weeks when I've cheated on him several times". Where is their big friendship? How could you ever treat your best friend this way?

First half of this book was amazing, the second half a chore. There are so many faults in this book (people can read, but can't write) that I could go on and on. Overall, it was a big meh. I don't think I'll read the second book in the series, since I see where this is going and it's not a direction I'll like. My secret hope is that Ky dies because of the Society and Cassia remembers that Xander was her love all along. But since no such thing will probably happen, I'll stick to other books.

If you can tolerate stupid love triangles, I'd recommend Matched. The world is to die for.