Summary:
Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander’s face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate…until she sees Ky Markham’s face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.
The Society tells her it’s a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she’s destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can’t stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society’s infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.
Matched is the first book of a trilogy of dystopia. In this story we have a 17 years old girl named Cassia as the main character.
Cassia lives in a futuristic world where all the people are controlled by the gobernment or as they called it "The society". The society decides what you have to wear, what you have to eat, how much you exercise, where do you have to work, when you die and who you have to marry. Despite living in a very controlled environment, people are content with this lifestyle. The society finds the perfect way to give only the necessary freedom to people in such a way that they do not notice that in fact they are almost completely controlled. And it works, because most of the people are happy as they are.
One of the main topics of this book is love. So, something very important in the story is the system of matching people. When a certain age is reached, you are given the option to be matched. If you decide to enter this system, your name is added to a huge file with all the people of your age in the nation. In this way you matched with the person who is your soul mate according to data, and you reveal the name of your soul mate in an elegant ceremony in front of a lot of people. This system proved to work very well, since people are truly happy with their partners and nobody decides to "divorce".
When the day of the feast of Cassia arrives, Cassia can't wait to know who has been chosen by the society to be her soul mate. The screen turns on and Cassia is surprised, because her partner is someone she knows. His handsome and perfect best friend: Xander.
Everything seems to go well between them. Xander and Cassia have been together since they were small. But Cassia is not totally convinced. She decides to enter the card that they gave her with the information of her partner in the computer. The computer displays the face of Xander as she was waiting for. But then something happens. The computer restarts and in the screen another person appears as her partner. Another guy that she knows: Ky.
Cassia can´t believe it. Ky is a very mysterious boy with whom she is not exactly close. Society tells Cassia that to show Ky in the screen was an error in the system, and that Xander is her real partner. But Cassia can't help approaching Ky. And apparently Ky also has interest in Cassia.
Cassia finds herself in a real problem, because she begins to challenge the society by talking to Ky, when they told her not to.
When I heard of Matched, I immediately searched the book because I was more than sure that i was going to love this story. I think that Matched shows us a very interesting lifestyle and it is one of the worlds of dystopia with more potential to turn into something that can truly happen to society in the future. I really like the way the author describes all the little details and her writing was sometimes poetic, wich i liked.
However i think that something missed in this book. I could not say accurately what was what was missing. I really liked the book, but there were parts in the book that were boring, at least for me. I think that this story had all the potential to become one of my favorite books. But something was missing.
Especially in the end. Ally Condie leaves much to be desired. Instead of leaving me wanting to know more , it left me with an unsatisfied feeling by the way in which it ended.
The characters are very good. I especially liked the character of Xander, unfortunately I think he doesn´t appear very much during the story. Most of the time when his name appears it´s because Cassia is remembering him.
But anyway Ky is not far behind. I was very interested in his character and I think that the mystery that surrounds him , makes him very attractive and makes the people who are reading the story vey curious about his past. I like that he doesn't say much, but when he said something, it was romantic and very interesting.
In conclusion I would say that definitely I liked Matched very much and i recommend it. I think that it will stay on my list of books that I like a lot. And I hope the author adds more action in the second book.
Rating: ★★★★ (4/5)
