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Feb 08, 2012

Tatiana rated it:

As seen on The Readventurer

First thing first. I think Ally Condie owes at least half of her seven-figure paycheck to Lois Lowry. The entire dystopian world is lifted directly from Lowry's The Giver. Almost everything interesting in Matched is very familiar - the idea of highly controlled Society (the Community in The Giver), the prearranged Matches, uniform clothing, the pills suppressing emotions, predetermination of everyone's life course, euthanized elderly, regulated personal More...

229 comments like (238 people liked it)

Feb 03, 2012

Kira rated it:

This book reminds me of Insidious.

I borrowed it from the library and watched it with my sister one afternoon, expecting horror greatness. I popped some corn, we bumped elbows and on it went. She grabbed a cushion for safety.

While the starting creds are up, I look at the box and say to her, "It's PG-13."

She screws up her face. "What?"

"PG-13," I say. "Look."

"Hm." She looks back at the scr More...

18 comments like (25 people liked it)

Nov 28, 2011

Misty rated it:

3 for enjoyment, 2 for substance.

[Warning: I'm not sure if this turned out to be a review or a philosophical discussion, or some freaky lovechild of the two. Bear with me...]

Matched can be an enjoyable, engaging read, but it more often tends to be melodramatic and overwritten at times. It's the type of story that definitely requires willing suspension of disbelief -- otherwise, you'll constantly be asking yourself how this world came to be, and wondering what happened t More...

15 comments like (23 people liked it)

Feb 09, 2011

Joyzi rated it:

Book Review

Okay I promised I'll write an in depth review so here it is and I'll try to not put biggie spoilers. (I'm going to use Q & A style of reviewing this time)

What made you pick-up the book?
> I actually watched a book trailer in Youtube (the link to that vid was way down there somewhere) so and yeah I got intrigued by that video and then I go to goodreads and read reviews about it. I was a bit shock about the mix reviews, some was positive and some was negative. More...

57 comments like (53 people liked it)

Sep 27, 2011

Annalisa rated it:

When I heard Condie snagged a $1mil deal for her trilogy, I instantly expected this to be cheap, tantalizing but empty, and poorly written. Is my faith in the publishing industry that low? Sadly, sometimes yes. Then I met Ally. She's adorable, down-to-earth, and not at all tainted by the buzz. Ever since, I've been anxiously trying to get my hands on an ARC of Matched. I really wanted it to be as good as her publisher thinks it is.

I sat down Friday afternoon with my friend's ARC (and More...

8 comments like (21 people liked it)

Dec 21, 2011

Ghirardelli rated it:

The fart was this? I just...the FART WAS THIS?!

That beautiful cover is mean. It drew me right in with its pretty lime green bubble bait of death. Can't help wanting to have some of my favorite color on my reading shelf. Hnnnnng. It said, "READ ME OR I WILL MURDER YOU FAMILY." And I bought it so it'd stop glaring at me in the teeny-bopper section of B&N.

I opened Matched, and snails came at me with their shells and antennae of slime and grime and chime and d More...

30 comments like (30 people liked it)

Jul 30, 2011

karen rated it:

yeah.

this is one i might be too old for. a lot of people compare this to The Giver, and i get it, in that they are both these forced-utopias, but then, so is The Stepford Wives, yeah? but since i didn't like the giver, i can't really complain that this was a rip-off, because neither of them did very much for me, so i'm not going to go waving any flags around in either's defense. you are on your own, books...

but if i had to.

this one may have been slightly more More...

7 comments like (37 people liked it)

Sep 06, 2010

evelyn rated it:

So I didn't expect them to at all, but a little part of me was really hoping Scholastic would come to BEA with a stack of galleys for "Mockingjay" the way they did with "Catching Fire." Of course they didn't, they wouldn't want to ruin the end of the trilogy before it's released. But a girl can dream.

So, anyway, there was a big gap in my galley pile that could only be filled by some quality YA distopian fiction. When I went to the YA Editors' Buzz panel and heard More...

8 comments like (44 people liked it)

Oct 11, 2011

Paige rated it:

Also appears on The Screaming Nitpicker. Read and reviewed for the H.Y.P.E. Project (details here).

Basically, this is your book if you want more bland romance and less dystopia in your YA dystopia.

The night of Cassia's Matching, she is as nervous as she can be. Why wouldn't she be? It's one of the biggest nights of her life, the night she will meet her Match and see who she will spend the rest of her life in love with. Her best friend Xander is announced as her Match, unu More...

7 comments like (24 people liked it)

Aug 27, 2011

Kimberly Joy rated it:

WHAT MADE ME READ THE BOOK?
It's a trailer I watched in Youtube, and I was intrigued about it.

Matched Trailer

At first, I thought it was just another best friend-love-best friend-love-new guy thing. I'm right, but not what I expected. It get's better and better as I read more.
(Note: If you think like a writer, you'll know something that might happen.)

The plot reminds me a little of Hunger Games (perfect/imperfect Society, rebellion) but it's still gr More...

7 comments like (12 people liked it)

Dec 03, 2011

Karen rated it:

Ummm... Semi-spoiler alert (is there even such a thing)?

I haven’t written a review in a long time, so forgive me if I seem out of touch.

Let’s get started shall we?

In my opinion, the only thing worse than a horrible book, is a boring book. A book that you cannot get through without an alarmingly large number of yawns and breaks to get your daily required fix of entertainment (that the book failed to provide). Reading this book was like a chore. I didn’ More...

17 comments like (23 people liked it)

Mar 06, 2011

Nomes rated it:

Blurbed by Melina Marchetta: 'Beautifully written with characters that stayed with me long after the final page,' and with it's stunning cover, Matched is the shiny new temptation of the season.

Okay - so I was completely PUMPED about it. I am an unashamed fan of a good love triangle - tension! drama! heart-ache-y choices! swooning! Also - a dystopian, well, it's a fascinating setting to explore all kinds of themes and deliver some twisted showdowns.

So...

Matche More...

22 comments like (17 people liked it)

Jul 13, 2011

Brittany rated it:

To me , this book was just okay. But don't let my opinion put you off.

This book is about a girl names Cassia Reyes who on her 17th birthday will be 'matched'. Cassia has always trusted in the society and never before questioned them. The society makes everyone's choices and controls how they live their lives -what to read, what to watch, what to believe and who they will be married too. So when her best friend Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows wit More...

19 comments like (5 people liked it)

Aug 30, 2011

Emily rated it:

Soo... basic storyline being of a society where officials decide every aspect of a person's life from the big stuff as in who they'll marry (or be 'matched' with) and when they'll die to the little stuff like what they eat, how they dress and their daily routines. The story tells how Cassia is matched to a boy but falls for another and suddenly begins to question the rules of the society, heading as she does so straight into a world of secrets and danger. Great sounding plot, am I right? Too bad More...

9 comments like (18 people liked it)

Feb 26, 2011

Kristi (The Story Siren) added it

Matched drew me in with it's unique summary and beautiful cover, unfortunately that is where my fascination ended.

I wanted to like this book.... actually I wanted to love it, but I didn't. I had a very hard time getting though this novel. I even had to take a break from it completely, and I only kept reading because of the encouragement from others that had read it, insisting that it would get better. It didn't get a whole lot better for me.

I guess my biggest problem was that More...

21 comments like (29 people liked it)

Nov 26, 2011

Kathryn rated it:

I was first introduced to this book by Tiffany.
As much as we love reading the same genre books like Fantasy,Children and Young Adult, we realized that we haven't read enough same books together this year.

Tiffany use to say that if I were to write a book, this is how I would write one. That when she read it, it reminded her very much of me.
After having read this book, I must say that I am very flattered.

Honestly, this is only the third Dystopian novel I hav More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Oct 07, 2011

Lissa rated it:

I don't normally talk about covers, but this one is just so perfect, if a little obvious. Cassia in the green dress she wears to her Matching ceremony, trapped in a bubble and pushing gently at the sides. Obvious, yes. Effective, yes.

Let me tell you what happens in this book.

Cassia is all set to marry whoever the Society tells her to marry. The day after her unexpected and highly rare Match to her best friend Xander she sees the portrait of another boy she knows, Ky, appe More...

16 comments like (9 people liked it)

Jul 13, 2011

Danny rated it:

Do you also sometimes judge a book by it's ending? Totally happened here. For the first part of the book I was bored, the story moves on pretty slow, I was always expecting something... more?!

But the ending totally made up for it!!

The story of Cassia, Ky and Xander plays in a world where everything is decided for you. Of course it's for the best... What you eat, what you work, what you know and of course, also who you love. Every one (apart from the ones that are supposed t More...

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

May 14, 2011

Realteenreviews rated it:

The Gist:

The Society is perfect. The Officials plan out everything. What you eat and where you work. Who you love, and even when you die. Not making your own decisions is a small price to pay for having a long, healthy life, and the people blindly follow the Society’s rules. Cassia Reyes has complete faith in the Officials’ choices. And there’s no reason she shouldn’t; her life has been wonderful so far. At seventeen years old, Cassia is ready to be paired with her ideal match More...

7 comments like (4 people liked it)

Nov 28, 2011

N.L. rated it:

3 stars isn't accurate for this book - more like 2.5 stars. As I was reading this book, I kept thinking that a large part of this book is extremely familiar but I could not place the book I was thinking of. I came to Goodreads to mark this book as read and to read the other comments. There it was - comments on the book I couldn't remember the name of - The Giver. Everything clicked and I have to say The Giver was better even though I am not a fan of dystopian books. The Twilight reference toward More...

6 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 13, 2011

Jessica rated it:

Everything in this book is so CLEAN! I loved that. You have to understand, I had a "thing" for utopian societies in high school. BRAVE NEW WORLD, THIS PERFECT DAY, HARRISON BERGERON . . . oh, yes! I've read them all. And what struck me about some of them was that it was supposed to be the perfect, future society, but everyone just seemed so sweaty . . . But not so in the Society. Everything is carefully sanitized. Clothes are clean, or quickly changed when they are not. The wor More...

10 comments like (19 people liked it)

Oct 05, 2011

Joe rated it:

Official Transcripts

June 21, 2001 • AOL Chatroom AuthorTalk
ACondieHottie: Oh my gosh! Lois Lowry! You're actually online!
2timeNewbery: Sigh. Hello, Allie.
ACondieHottie: It's Ally. With a 'y'!
ACondieHottie: I can't believe u forgot! Don't u read my letters?
2timeNewbery: I've received them, yes.
ACondieHottie: Ur my favorite author! Ur books R so rad!
ACondieHottie: Especially The Giver! I love that one! It's so aweum!
ACondieHottie: Jonah's More...

19 comments like (62 people liked it)

Oct 25, 2011

Sam rated it:

*3.5/4 stars*

I really enjoyed this book.

In Cassia's world, people have no control over who they are supposed to love. The Society decides that. And everything else - what people read, how many children they have, where they work, when they die. Cassia has never known another way of life and trusts the Society to make the right decisions for her; they are there for that very reason so Cassia obeys they rules.

On her seventeenth birthday, Cassia is ready to acce More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 03, 2011

Kirsten rated it:

***Edit: I just glanced over this and saw that there is like 100 typos but I'm leaving them beacause, whatever, it's 2:24 am :D****

4.75 stars :D

Holy Moly. I just read the second half of this in one sitting. I have a massive headache and I'm super tired because it's now 2am, but it was worth it! Gosh there were so many things I loved about this.

1. Writing style. Beautiful. Great imagery and voice. Just lovely. She writes very much in the way that I like t More...

5 comments like (11 people liked it)

Sep 07, 2011

Lyndz_♥ rated it:

I am giving Matched 3 1/2 stars. The fact that I really related with Cassia, and she turned out to be a strong, smart, independent thinking female is what tipped the scale for me.

I was actually on the wait list on the library for a really long time for this one. And then when it was finally my turn I was out of town so I missed my 48 hour pickup window and then had to go to the back of the hold line again. I think it was worth the wait.

This is a teenage love triangle bo More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 04, 2011

Nina rated it:

Matched is one of many dystopian YA novels I have read lately, but it definitely manages to stand out from the rest. The story is set in a world where The Society decides everything from how fast you can run on the treadmill, to who you will marry, to when you will die. We don't get much of an explanation as to how this system developed, but the purpose seems to be that if everyone wears the same clothes and eat the same food, and nobody has anything more than anyone else, people won't have a re More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 06, 2011

Ruby rated it:

First posted on http://rubysreads.com[return][return]The first thing I noticed about Matched was that the narrative style reminded me of Carrie Jones' Need (and its sequel, Captivate). It's told in the first person by Cassia Reyes, a seventeen-year-old girl living in a futuristic, Dystopian world. The novel opens on the night of Cassia's Match Banquet. Being "Matched" means obtaining a husband or wife chosen by the Society. The Society is a big brother-type group made up of Officers an More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

May 22, 2011

Krys rated it:

I was privileged enough to acquire an advanced copy of Matched by Ally Condie several months before the release date. I'm thrilled to say that the book lives up to it's premise.

The Society has always provided for everyone's needs - food, clothing, shelter are merely a matter of course. They also provide Matches for everyone, genetically perfect pairs for breeding out the biggest imperfections a human being can develop. Cassia is 17 and has never questioned the Society, particularly n More...

5 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jun 03, 2011

kari rated it:

2.5 stars but I can't give it a 3
...and my opinion on this one is meh. That’s it, just meh, not good, not bad, not great, not awful, simply meh.
There is nothing outstanding here and, quite honestly, nothing new or different. Yes, it’s a dystopian post-whatever world, but it doesn’t feel that way. It feels more that it’s trying very hard to show this very different world, but using tons of jargon does not a world make. I get where the author was going but, in my opinion, she didn’t ge More...

8 comments like (13 people liked it)

Oct 31, 2011

Heidi rated it:

Matched

What would it be like to live in a world without war, sickness, hunger, poverty and all the other ills that menace our society. We all long for the perfect utopian society but at what price? What would you be willing to sacrifice to live in this world? In Matched, Ally Condie provides a very real and frightening glimpse into a perfect world. It is a life completely controlled by The Society. As a member, you have no input on any aspect of your life. All your decisions are More...

7 comments like (6 people liked it)