Matched (Matched #1): Book Review

Matched is a pretty formulaic dystopian novel that smacks of The Hunger Games and older, Orwellian speculative fiction. But it's well-written and pretty quickly paced, so it sucked me in and held my attention the entire book. You have to suspend belief for a good portion of it, but if you just read it for entertainment and enjoyment's sake, you shouldn't be disappointed. It's easy to feel depressed reading about the world of Matched; I had a particularly difficult time reading about Cassia's grandfather and his Final Banquet. The whole world seems bleak and hopeless, the characters all just robots. But then there is a spark of hope, and that spark ignites something in a couple of characters that makes them yearn to be different, to make their own choices. And it's good enough to make you want to root for them, and ultimately read to the end.

I want to know how these people can read and type and use computers, but they don't know how to write. That makes absolutely NO sense to me. Also, everyone is matched and their future spouses chosen for them (and all at the age of 17? Is there no possibility that someone's perfect match might be older or younger than themselves? Ridiculous.), but it's apparently okay for them to have flings with others on the side. What? Okay, and what exactly IS a sorting job? Cassia spends all her time "working" and preparing for her final job placement and she sorts. Sorts what? Into what categories and for what purpose? What exactly does sorting DO again? None of that is explained. I guess you just have to gloss over it. Another thing that bothered me is the "war" in the Outer Provinces. Who is warring against whom? And why? And why doesn't anyone seem concerned about it? Why doesn't anyone in this "Society" try to break or even bend the rules a little? Has human nature been perfectly Match-bred out of them? That seems unlikely. So yeah, there is a lot in the book that you just have to not question or look at too closely. But even with that, it's a pretty well-written, interesting story appropriate for the audience for which it's written.

I'm definitely game for reading the next books in the series. I give it 3.5 stars. 

Purchase the book on Amazon.
Read more about the author, Ally Condie, on Goodreads.