Book Review

Matched: Review
By Tunja Domic for Major Newspaper

Matched by Ally Condie used a worn-out, chewed up, and overused love triangle theme to create a multi-dimensional world where everything is so screwed up, that it is a great setting for a dystopia. It is perfectly paced; the flaws of the Society are revealed in perfect time to the character development, and so little is known about the main character (physically) that she is quite easy to relate to.

Matched fits perfectly into its 'young adult' dystopian novel category with the totalitarian government, just-enough romance and conflict - tons of it. Even with a typical plot-line, Condie manages to captivate readers everywhere with her easy readability and other-world Society. 

However, I found this basically a repeat of The Hunger Games and The Giver, but there were many original items to the mix, as well. What Hunger Games' 'Panem' had that the Society doesn't is the power to create. As the Society has taken the 'hundred best' of everything (books, songs, poems...), and nobody knows how to write - they only take words from the hundred best. Over the course of the book, Cassia learns to appreciate writing and creativity. As this book was intended for 'young adults', it gives a perfect view on how important freedom and creativity really are.

Something else I enjoyed is how the book managed to turn the love triangle plot-line into more than just a story about “I want this, and this, but I can only have one”—Ally Condie instead created a world where the love triangle led Cassia not only to desire freedom of choice, but the ability to express herself and share thought and feeling with others through words.

Author Ally Condie slowly sets the stage for her young adult series about a dystopian society where, in exchange for a long, disease-free and peaceful life, citizens follow rigid guidelines that keep them in a state of ignorance. Unfortunately, Condie keeps the reader in this state as well, withholding significant details until the story's end.

Final Verdict: 

Pass, great for young adult readers who enjoyed the Hunger Games and Divergent, and want a new dystopian  society to jump into.