Matched by Ally Condie Spoiler-Free Review

 

I know I didn't mention it earlier this month, but I finally read Matched by Ally Condie. I know I'm kinda late to the game (this book was first published in 2010 and maybe a lot of you have already read it!) with this one, but I struggled for a long time to pick it up because dystopian YA fiction is very hit or miss for me. I actually got this as a gift from a family friend a couple of years ago, but I didn't read the entire thing until now. 

So I gave this 4 out of 5 ⭐s. I will explain later.

This is about a 17 year old girl named Cassia who lives in a dystopian society where everything is chosen for you to optimize healthy living and success based on your genes. The story begins where Cassia and her family are going to the Matched banquet, which is a ceremony where the Officials (people who work for the government) choose who you are going to be with for the rest of your life (who you will marry, who will you have kids with, etc.). To her surprise, Cassia gets matched with Xander, her childhood friend, which is apparently very rare in the Society. She is very happy and so is Xander, but a couple of days later as she is checking out the information about Xander and his picture on an electronic port in her house via a microcard, a picture of another guy pops up, and it is not Xander. It is a mysterious boy she knows named Ky. An Official comforts her telling her it was a mistake on their end and Xander is still her match, but the incident leads her wanting to know more about Ky and his dark and troubled past, and she finds out he is actually a very sweet and kind guy. However, she starts to fall for him, and then it leads her to questioning if the Society is actually perfect...

It was an enjoyable book. It was surprisingly chill compared to other YA dystopian novels I read. There are only two chapters I can remember (one in the middle and one towards the very end) where it is more intense, but other than that I wouldn't say it's a high-stakes YA dystopian novel. Cassia and several other characters do question the Society's decisions from time to time, and do small acts of rebellion, but there is no one big uprising that happens in any part of the book. 

You should know going into this that there is heavy focus on romance and (some, very little) character development, and not a lot on worldbuilding, which is why I gave this book 4 stars. I was disappointed in the lack of worldbuilding. I mean, there is some in small bits sprinkled here in there, like the name of the place where they live and how everyday things are conducted, but there is no history on where the place is or how it came to be, which is kind of odd, considering most dystopian novels tend to do that. This is basically just a romance novel with a dystopian background. It's not too bad, but don't expect too much commentary on human problems and the setting being explained in great detail.

I'm not sure if I'd recommend this book because there wasn't anything groundbreaking about it--it's definitely a product of early 2010s YA dystopia. That's not a bad thing in it of itself, but this kind of book can be underwhelming for some people. I guess I could recommend it if you want something somewhat chill that doesn't make you think too much. I heard the Selection series by Kiera Cass is pretty much in a similar vein. I might be reading that series sometime.

I still liked the book well enough to want to keep reading it, so sometime in the future I will be reading Crossed. Be on the lookout for that review!