Book Review: Matched by Ally Condie

Title: Matched
Author: Ally Condie
Pages: 384
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Source: ARC recieved from publisher

Summary: In the Society, Officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die.

Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s barely any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one . . . until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow—between perfection and passion.

Review: I know there's a big hype for this book. I was so excited that I got a copy! The cover looked very interesting and the summary looked awesome too! Before I read this book I had high expectations for it. This book didn't really live up to my expectations, though. Don't get me wrong, I really liked it. I just thought it could have been a little better. I didn't really like the romance. I think she chose the wrong guy.

The main character, Cassia, had to choose between two boys: Xander and Ky. Xander is her best friend that she has known forever. She gets matched with him. "Matched" means that someone is chosen for you that you are intended to marry. Ky is a boy who Cassia doesn't know very well but his face flashed on the screen for a moment when it should've been Xander's face. I don't agree with who Cassia chose to be with. I think she would have been better off with the other boy.

In a way this book kinda reminds me of the book The Giver by Lois Lowry. The city they are in is futuristic where their lives are controlled and they are always monitored. A similar part in both books are that when someone reaches a certain age (really old), then they are, as The Giver puts it, "released". That means that they are forced to die. I think that part in this book was really sad. Knowing the day that someone really close to me is going to die would be really depressing.

This book was really clean! There was no mature content or language at all. I would recommend this book to anybody who likes dystopian (futuristic) romance books. Ally Condie is a great writer! I gave this book 4 coffee cups. I really liked it.