Ally Condie

On her seventeenth birthday, Cassia meets her match. Society dictates he is her perfect partner for life. Except he's not. In Cassia's society, Officials decide who people love. How many children they have. Where they work. When they die. But, as Cassia finds herself falling in love with another boy, she is determined to make some choices of her own. And that's when her whole world begins to unravel . . . 'Don't miss this gripping page turner.' She 'A must read.' The Sun www.matched-book.com

Matched

Haley

Although well-written, the book premise has been done before. Sometimes, authors can do something that has been done before and make it different, but this book doesn’t have anything special. The love triangle dystopia has been done so many times and I just didn’t find anything unique about this situation. 

Hope McCollum

The plot of the book was a bit slow at first, but it got a lot more interesting and well-paced towards the end. I liked the setting of the world, but a lot of the times I could not imagine this dystopian world as much as I wanted to. A little repetitive at times, but I did love the meanings in the story of familial love, choices, and friendship. I also liked the poems that popped up.

Eleanor Luhar

"Do not go gentle into that good night"
I was not sure what to expect from this book. A story of love? A story of finding freedom? A story of loss and desires? In the end, it turned out to be all of these things, and more.

Cassia's Match Banquet is extraordinary; it is extremely rare for it to turn out the way hers did. And she's happy. She's really, truly happy.

But then something happens. Something even more unusual, something that sends Cassia's world tumbling. She could choose to ignore it, simply dismiss it as a mistake of the Society.

Or she could fight.

The Society rules the lives of everyone - it takes care of their choices, both good and bad. Everyone is used to it; they know it's for their best interests. They would never dare to think otherwise. But...

What if it isn't for their best interests?

Matched reminds me very much of the Divergent trilogy, in the way that the Society is so much in control of everything. Freedom is something nobody ever even thought to fight for, until Cassia is faced with a terrible and rare decision. This is a book about love, but it also about fighting for what is right, and making choices in a world where there is none. 4 stars out of 5 for this piece of work by Ally Condie.

On her seventeenth birthday, Cassia meets her Match. Society dictates he is her perfect partner for life. Except he's not. In Cassia's society, Officials decide who people love. How many children they have. Where they work. When they die. But, as Cassia finds herself falling in love with another boy, she is determined to make some choices of her own. And that's when her whole world begins to unravel . . .

Å, denne boka likte jeg veldig godt. Det er en fin kjærlighetshistorie satt i et dystopisk USA, hvor the Society har kontroll på ALT -- hvor mange barn man får, hvor store porsjoner med mat man spiser, hvilke klær man har på seg etc. Er det bare meg som faktisk ikke syntes at the Society virket så ille? Jeg kunne tenkt meg å bodd der, jeg! Men så er jo jeg ekstremt glad i rutiner, regler, orden og forutsigbarhet (hello, aspie), så jeg har kanskje litt andre meninger enn folk flest. Vel, uansett . . . Cassia er sytten år og får hun har blitt Matched med Xander, barndomsvennen sin. Men så popper Ky sitt ansikt opp på skjermen -- enda en gutt hun vet av fra før -- og så blir hun ekstremt nysgjerrig på ham. Det er mange søte situasjoner mellom de to i boka (for eksempel på turgåingsaktiviteten), men jeg må si at jeg er Team Xander, hehe. Mot slutten er det litt action, hvor vi får vite hva den røde pillen som alle må ha med seg til enhver tid gjør. Slutten er litt cliffhanger og jeg har veldig lyst til å lese “Crossed”, men den er ikke utkommet enda…
 
PS! Er ikke coveret helt nydelig?! Og det passer sååå godt til historien!

Bryanna Leigh

Surprisingly better than I thought it was going to be in the beginning. Granted, there were still problems I had issues with. Most had to do with the characters themselves: mildly typical female narrator, mysterious "new" boy, etc., etc.

Lonneke

3.5 stars. I kind of expected to hate this book because of all the negative reviews I read of this book, but that isn't true. I thought the story was very interesting. There were a few things that i've seen before in young adult/dystopian books, but it didn't bother me too much. The plot was a little slow for me, it kind of felt like a build up for the next book in the series. A lot of the story is in Cassia's head and I noticed that I lost my attention for the book sometimes because of that. But in the end I did like it. I like Ally Condie's writing and the story was interesting enough. Not anything special, but enjoyable.

Paduraru Constantina

"Matched" este primul volum dintr-o serie SF și dragoste, care pornește de la o idee utilizată de multe ori, dar autoarei îi reușește o poveste interesantă și antrenantă. Cu toate acestea, acțiunea este, de cele mai multe ori, previzibilă și acest lucru face ca suspansul să dispară. Dar dacă nu ați lecturat prea multe cărți, în special de acest gen, e posibil să vă placă.

Cassia trăiește într-o societate "egală", în care totul este hotărât și aranjat, totul este în ordine și fiecare persoană este, într-o anumită măsură, egală cu cealaltă. Fiecare persoană poate citi doar 100 de cărți sau 100 de poezii, poate să asculte tot atâtea melodii, toate alese cu grijă la începuturile acestei societăți. Toate persoanele, înainte de vârsta de șaptesprezece ani, trebuie să aleagă dacă vor rămâne Single toată viața — nu se vor putea căsători și nu vor putea avea copii, dar vor putea avea relații — sau aleg să fie Matched, să li se aleagă un partener cu care să își petreacă toată viața. Cu toții, dacă au dus o viață sănătoasă și nu mor înainte de termen, pier la optzeci de ani. Scena în care copacii sunt tăiați deoarece nu au însușiri asemănătoare arată însă că nu mai este egalitate. Societatea distruge diversitatea. 

La începutul romanului, partenerul protagonistei este chiar prietenul cel mai bun al fetei, Xander, un caz foarte rar, dar când Cassia verifică detaliile despre viața partenerului ei, pe ecranul dispozitivului apare imaginea unui alt băiat, un proscris al societății, Ky. O eroare în sistem. Societatea nu face erori. Cassia se trezește interesată și, mai pe urmă, atrasă de Ky. Ce poate să facă în acest caz, cum poate să îl lase pe Xander, băiatul perfect pentru ea? Asta ar însemna să se întoarcă împotriva societății, iar rebelii plătesc aspru.

Și mai presus de toate, un poem interzis pe care i l-a dăruit bunicul ei înainte să moară îi acaparează gândurile. Trezește în ea sentimente necunoscute. "Do not go gentle into that good night" cheamă la răzvrătire când ea și-ar fi dorit o viață liniștită. Însă viața mai are multe de pregătit pentru ea.

I really wanted to love this book... but overall it just left me pretty "meh." I'll read the next book at some point... but I'm not in a big hurry to do so.

Lisa ✩ @lifeinlit

** Originally posted on Lost in Literature.

Audiobook Review:

I've had the hard copy of Matched sitting on my shelf for quite a while now. I purchased it right when it was released. But it was taking me so long to get to it, I decided to get the audiobook to listen to instead. Matched was a delight to read... errr, listen to. I really liked the narrator's voice. Cassia had such a sweet voice, and it just helped with the picture in my head of the sweet girl she was. Ky's voice was rather mysterious and even sounded breathless at times, which was a bit weird to me. But I became quickly engulfed in the story and enjoyed it throughout.

Cassia, at her Matching Ceremony, finds out that she is matched with none other than her friend, Xander. The wonderful, comfortable, best choice she could have ever imagined. But when Ky's face quickly appears and disappears on the screen, she is left with questions of who this is and why his face flashed on her screen. Cassia quickly becomes acquainted with Ky and questions seem to overwhelm her... is she meant to be with Xander? What are these feelings she's having for Ky?

I really enjoyed Matched. The story line was easy to follow, and though the listener was faced with several questions throughout the book, it all seemed to come together at the end nicely. Ally definitely left us wanting more... and I will be continuing on with this wonderful series.

Zoe Ivie 

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. Look for CROSSED, the sequel to MATCHED, in Fall 2011! Watch a Video

Matched

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