Review: Matched by Ally Condie

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



*****CONTAINS SPOILERS!!******



I have to say I didn't think I would love this book, but I felt like trying something different so I borrowed it from the library.

One thing I noticed after reading a chapter or two was a lack of description and world building - Cassia mentions the tablets she carries, the fact she lives in a dystopian future and being matched but none of this is explained well, or a small description is given near the end of the book.  I wanted to know about all these things - why is it necessary for everyone to have the tablets, be matched and why is the world dystopian?  What does it look like?  What happened in the past?  These were all questions I was wondering early and throughout the book.  Some of the places Cassia visits had very little or no description, making the parts set there a bit confusing for me.  I felt that this book was only made a dystopian as it's a popular genre at the moment - apart from the obvious things it could easily be a teen drama book set in present day.

I found the long scenes about Cassia's grandfather should have been further into the book or even left until the second or third book so readers get to know him a bit more and so they also know WHY everyone dies at 80, which Cassia finds out quite a while after this part in the book.  I think the scenes would have made more sense and would fit in better if they had happened after Cassia found out about the poison.
 Talking of the storyline, I didn't feel there was much OF a storyline o.0.  The entire book focused on Cassia trying to decide whether to be with Ky or Xander.  There were a few moments where the Officials randomly did something like cut down trees or take away artifacts, which made no sense.  It was as if the author thought she NEEDED to make them do something a bit 'evil' to fit in with some other popular dystopians....

I didn't hate any of the characters or find them annoying, but neither did I love any of them.  I found none of them to have much too them and being a bit flat or much backstory at all, the only one having a bit of backstory being Ky.  Which generally made me feel a bit 'meh' about them.

I don't think I will be reading the next in the series.  In general I disliked this book, but I didn't HATE it and I think readers who like drama or romance books would enjoy this book.

Rating: 2/5