"Matched"

by Ally Condie, YA, 2010, 369p, rating=3.5

"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." (Goodreads)

I was gobbling up the story from the beginning.  Dystopia seem to fascinate me.  I totally enjoyed Lois Lowry's The Giver, my first introduction to this type of classification.  So the premise is similar ... creating the ideal perfect world.  One free from conflict and confusion.  This only to be achieved by a totalitarian kind of governing.  Reasonably sound in theory but impossible to reach when humanity embraces the beauty of wonder.  Anyway, this book touched on that suffocation... the loss of personal freedom to choose anything and everything about ones life.  However, as you may recall, I'm not a fan of love triangles lately.  Over done for my taste.  Yet, the love triangle here wasn't necessarily choosing the better guy but the act of merely choosing for oneself.  Cassia was in a quest to wonder ... to be able to get all the facts, weigh them, and then make a decision for herself.  The life she has known had been like a spell and now with increasing knowledge of a different way of life, that spell was beginning to be lifted.

The beginning was strong then it got a bit trying (from describing a dystopian world not done by other authors that some aspects didn't make sense), but by around page 300 onward, well, I couldn't read fast enough to see how it ends!  Unfortunately, it left me asking, "Huh?".  I will read the sequel but I won't be the Mervyn's lady who's glued to the door squealing, "Open, open!".

P.S.  I think I would have liked a close up of the encircled girl for a book cover.  I think a larger view would be prettier, more colorful, and more inviting.  Just sayin'. :)