Book Notes: 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 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."


Dystopian societies are always really fascinating to me, so when I came across this book I was super excited. I wanted to love this book so much, but after reading it I was left unfulfilled.  The story opened well and I liked the idea of being matched and all that, but everything else fell pretty flat for me. I kept questioning things in the book when I just couldn’t understand why some things weren’t allowed.

One of the biggest questions I have is, why couldn’t Cassia really understand writing or creating? They’re aware of the concepts of doing so, but they just don’t do it. I didn’t like that anyone never questioned anything before this point.

I felt like a lot of areas could’ve used more detail.  Story and character wise, stuff was left pretty underdeveloped for me. I understood that their society was very controlled, but they never explained what the sorting was all about. Was it numbers? Patterns? Pictures? The screens from The Matrix? I was also curious behind the idea of “Abberations”, but again there wasn’t much information behind why people were certain things. 

Okay, sure Cassia was decently developed, but I never had a good sense for who the guys were. I would start making my own developments for the guys because I had very little to go on. Everyone knew of the rebellions happening, but there wasn’t anyone who ever questioned it? Oh, and why can’t people go to each other’s homes?

There weren’t too many issues with Cassia for me. I didn’t really care for her or relate to her, but I also didn’t dislike her. She was just sort of there.  As far as her and her relationships go, I felt like she was kind of naïve in being careful at times. Like really, she’s surprised The Society knew stuff? Really? They watch her sleep, she really think they don’t see her everywhere else? Her relationships felt quick and I never really felt she was in love with a character even if she said she was.

The writing style was decent, however there were a number of instances where I felt Condie tried to be poetic and deep with Cassia, but failed to do so. Cassia wasn’t deep and thought provoking when trying to talk about the sky.  I’m sorry Cassia, you aren’t the first to daydream, I’m sure.

I’m sure I’ll eventually read the following books just to see what happens  in the storyline, but I’m in no rush to do so anytime soon.