Matched by Ally Condie

I need to preface this by saying that I haven't slept much. I need to go in the shower, make myself presentable and pack my things. All within the next four hours. And I read Matched by Ally Condie in a period of less than 24 hours, so if I don't write this immediately, I will probably forget what I read. Not because it was forgettable, but because I rushed through it. That's a good sign, right? I mean, technically, I had to rush through it because I borrowed it from the library, but I wouldn't have put it down anyway.

Matched is a dystopian young adult novel about a seventeen year old girl named Cassia, who has been "matched" with her best friend from childhood, Xander. All seventeen-year-olds are matched, basically an arranged marriage by the government, unless they want to be Single...Or happen to be an Aberration.

Cassia is very pleased with her match to Xander. Until she looks at the microcard she was given at the banquet and Xander's face disappears from the screen and Ky, another boy she knows, shows up instead. Cassia is reassured by an Official that this was a mistake. Ky couldn't possibly be her match because he is an Aberration (through no fault of his own, he's being punished for something his father did). Still, the damage is done and Cassia finds herself drawn to Ky.

Before I get into anything else, I want to say the love triangle was a problem for me. Not because it was poorly written, but because Xander and Ky are both so likable. Usually, in situations like this, the writer will push you in the right direction. One of the characters will be less likable. That's not the case in Matched, so I was left feeling really sorry for everyone involved because it's such an unfortunate situation. Especially for Xander. Cassia was matched to two people. But she was all Xander had. So if she chooses Ky, where does that leave him?

There's more to this book than the romantic subplot (or maybe it isn't a subplot, since the title IS Matched and that is where the love triangle comes in), but you don't see much of it. "So how do you know it's there?" Well. Allow me to explain it to you!

The people in this Society are given three different colored pills. A blue one for nutrition, in case they're ever in trouble. A green one to calm them during anxiety attacks. And a red one that they can only take after being told to by an Official. These pills make you forget everything that happened in the previous twelve hours. [SPOILER ALERT] Towards the end of the book, Cassia and some of her neighbors are told to take the red pill. She doesn't take it. When she talks to Xander later on, he tells her that the pills don't work on him. Or Ky. He also tells her that everyone has taken these pills before, but he won't tell her why. This leads me to believe that this trilogy IS going somewhere aside from the Cassia/Xander/Ky drama.

Matched brought up an issue that I thought was interesting. The Society only keeps 100 of everything for fear of being "too cluttered." 100 poems, 100 movies, 100 songs..."How can we appreciate anything fully when overwhelmed with too much?" I really wanted to know which 100 films the Society saved. Did anyone finally realize that Citizen Kane is too boring to sit through and destroy it? Did they save Casablanca? They could have...Casablanca could be used to encourage teenagers to do the right thing, instead of "selfishly" following your own personal feelings. (The "right" thing for Cassia would be to choose Xander, who she was matched with, instead of following her heart and choosing Ky.) The Society was very careful in selecting the material they chose to keep. They didn't allow anything to be left behind that encouraged the citizens to fight back. (Okay, so maybe Casablanca wouldn't have been acceptable then.)

A lot of Matched reminded me of other dystopian novels that have been released within the past several years. Although, I would like to point out that I don't think it was intentional. It was similar to The Giver because in both societies, their elders are killed when they reach a certain age. The Hunger Games, because it involves a love triangle between a girl, her best friend, and a boy she's known for years, but never really acknowledged. (Not that Cassia didn't really acknowledge Ky's existence, but she didn't NOTICE him until his face flashed on her screen.) It's similar to Delirium in the way that the government takes away everyone's control to choose who they want to spend their lives with. And then there's Divergent...I think being declared Divergent and an Aberration are both equally dangerous in these societies.

Overall, Matched was interesting. I enjoyed reading it and I will be starting the next book in the trilogy, Crossed, when I get home. It has potential. I want to see where Ally Condie goes with this series.