Matched

I have to say i was disapointed by MATCHED, what with its promising plot and interesting beginning. The first three chapters were stupendous, introducing the well-fleshed-out Cassia Reyes and Xander and her family, the great Matching sequence that i found oddly interesting. And as time went on, the book seemed to meld together. The love was not overpowering, though it consumed 3/4 of the book.

The last part of MATCHED is my favorite part, due to the great ending and the great running sequence. I found that the middle of the book was all the same, Cassi running from Xander to Ky and vice-versa in a desperate act of finding out who she really wants to be with.

Ally Condie is a fabulous author, though her pitfall is the romance. But Ally did one of the best jobs of fleshing out the Society and the people living in it. I haven’t experianced such a great dystopiann society built from the ashes in such a long time! The Hunger Games was a great world, and Divergent did an okay job, but MATCHED was a totally believable world with a good system.

Overall, i liked MATCHED enough that i am anxious to read CROSSED, but i hope Cassia can be more independant for decisions and free.

I expect great things from Ally Condie!

This is a hard book to review, I liked the book a lot but it didnt blow me away. The characters are strong and well thought through and the plot for a good series is there. I just feel like it takes the author so long to get the story to were there meant to be!

Cassia is a strong minded young teen who has been matched with her "perfect" match according to what her society wants but when there is a mix up on her matching chip and another boys face is there she starts to question if society can really make choices for a person's whole life. I found the prospect extremely scary actually and I am glad that this story is about Cassia fighting to make her own choices in the world.
my hope for the second book would be a little more happens to keep me hooked.

I absolutely loved this book! I love reading about futuristic dystopian societies and this one is one of my favorites. Ally Condie created a world that, at first glance, I thought would be fun to live in. Of course there's the whole not-being-able-to-pick-who-you-love thing and the you-can-only-listen-to-these-songs thing, among many other rules. But there's also a nice sense of community in world that seems to pretty much take care of your every need. Until of course Cassia realizes what she really needs, she can't have.

The world in Matched really reminded me of The Giver by Lois Lowry, and there are lots of parallels. But in Matched, the focus is around a blossoming love story where in The Giver, the characters are lacking the ability to really love. I for one, love the connection between Cassia and Ky. When they first realize they have feelings for each other, it's so dangerous that they have to hide it. The forbidden romance was really fun to read and I think I actually had butterflies myself, feeling so nervous for them.

If you're looking for a great summer read, this is it. I can't wait for Crossed, the next in the series!

Reader reviewed by Scattered Laura

Reader reviewed by iLive, iLaugh, iLove Books

Reader reviewed by Meghan

Reader reviewed by Idris

It is a difficult book to review, but I'll try.

Cassia
lives in a perfect world, where the Society makes decisions for her. What she eats,
where she works, where she lives, and who gets married or not. The story begins
when they select her perfect match. In this case, is her best friend Xander.
But there is a little mistake, and Cassia sees a picture of another boy,
instead of Xanders picture. And is when cassia starts wondering if the Society
is making the correct decisions.

She lives
in a world
without freedom. She
can not take any decision.
She lives in
a society completely
different from ours, one that imposes fear
and respect. From the very first moment, I liked what
the story was about. Specially the way how cassia started changing her oppinion
about the Society.

This book
is dense, slow, so the readers that are looking for a story
with more action and more romance, may be a little dissapointed. The
author gives much
emphasis on how is the Society
where they live, how it works, but
never gets to explain
how it arises, or why are they
like this. There are only a few mentions about the past.

I liked
it. I think this book could be considered as
an introduction to the world they live, and
I think if the
author decides, she can bring us a second
book with more action, more romance and more
development.

I give it three stars: I like it.

Reader reviewed by Lia

Matched starts out with Cassia, who is about to get "matched" with the person she will spend the rest of the life. To her surprise, she's "matched" with her best friend Xander. She is given a disk which contains all of Xander's information, but when she is viewing it another face pops up on the screen, making her question everything the Society does.

The writing was excellent; it was smooth and flowed well. While the premise of this book was new and exciting, I just thought the book was slow at times. I wish there was more action and adventure. While the plot was slow, I kept reading because the idea and writing intriuged me. This was an interesting read that is worth reading.

Reader reviewed by The Bookshelf Sophisticate

Ally Condie if you're out there reading this....will there be a sequel? This book has been talked about and hyped up all over the blogosphere and I couldn't wait to read it for myself. Now that I have I can say I know why it's been talked about at the volume that is has been. I loved it! Well, I loved it if there's a chance for a sequel, if this is a stand alone I'm very sad and without getting into spoiler zones that's all I can say.

Because I'd never read any of Condie's previous works I wasn't sure what to expect, but after reading her work you can't help but see she has a talent for this type of career in spades. The dystopian world she created in Matched is very unique and terrifying, and at the same time it's of course strangely fascinating. The idea of having the Society select your perfect match for each individual sounded like such a romantic idea to me at first. Condie describes the events leading up to the matching and the characters are all so excited and nervous, it was incredibly suspenseful. After a while though, the romantic aspects of the situation fade and the controlling nature of the act presents itself. Boo to the Society!

Condie kept with the typical elements and key components necessary for a dystopian novel but at the same time she was able to make it very much her own. The struggle Cassia goes through as she realizes that her perfect life may not be so perfect after all is very sad. She's not alone of course but here is where I may not agree with other readers. Cassia struggles with her feelings for two different boys and her love for both of them is poignant. I was kind of rooting for one boy and I'm thinking there's a good chance the majority will be rooting for the other. Only time will tell but you'll have to pick up the book to see for yourself who you think is right for Cassia and what you think she should do about all of it.

I loved Matched and Condie's writing and I'm crossing my fingers to see more of these characters in the future.