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Matched (Matched, #1)

Ally Condie

Discussion: New Science Fiction Books

Why we're reading this: Well written; excellent novel idea when it was written. Atmospheric; adult and teen fiction; versatile.
[close] Well written; excellent novel idea when it was written. Atmospheric; adult and teen fiction; versatile.

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What Members Thought

Feb 08, 2013 Alexis Masters rated it liked it

Shelves: genre__post-apocalyptic-dystopia, series, young-adult, first-in-series, insta-love-sighted

A very quick read. Nothing that surprising, either- teen love triangle "sneakily" hidden in a dystopian world where people are Matched (told whom to marry). Cassia is blissfully happy to be Matched to her childhood friend and everything is puppies and rainbows, when *gasp* another face appears on her Matching screen for a second! Who is this? Wait, I know that guy- he lives in my neighborhood. Why did I get Matched to him when I just got Matched to the first guy? OhMyGosh I now question everythi A very quick read. Nothing that surprising, either- teen love triangle "sneakily" hidden in a dystopian world where people are Matched (told whom to marry). Cassia is blissfully happy to be Matched to her childhood friend and everything is puppies and rainbows, when *gasp* another face appears on her Matching screen for a second! Who is this? Wait, I know that guy- he lives in my neighborhood. Why did I get Matched to him when I just got Matched to the first guy? OhMyGosh I now question everything! And of course I fall for the second boy because, well, there's mystery there. With Xander (boy #1) I know him already. I love him and I feel safe, but it's just not the same type of love. It can never be the special love that I have for Ky (boy #2) because now I know I can go against the rules. I'm such a rebel!
But I'm not sure if I want to be a rebel. I like a lot of things about my life. But Ky is so amazing that I just can't help it. And of course I haven't told Xander about any of this because I don't want the secret special feeling to go away, even though yesterday I still completely trusted Xander and we never kept anything from each other. So I better tell him. OhMyGosh he's hurt now because I told him! :( Well, he'll forgive me because even though he truly thinks we were Matched and therefore meant to be, I know better and he'll let me go after Ky because that's how amazing he is.

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Yeah. Even so, I liked the book. It helped immensely that I was warned pre-read not to expect anything superb, so I got the middling story I was looking for. Expectations matter, people.
More than anything, I felt bad for Xander. He gets screwed over and treated like crap because he trusts the girl he loves, but when she finally owns up to her bad actions, he still helps her because, well, he genuinely loves her and wants her to be happy. And he gets about as much thanks as you'd expect. I think there might have been a hug.
Taking away Cassia's jerk-ness towards Xander, I didn't mind her. I liked the way she thought of her family and wanted to protect them. The way she acted with her little brother was cute- I have a younger sister and there were scenes that felt very real and believeable from that perspective. The big sister might pick on the younger sibling and tease them, and even get angry, but when the shit hits the fan, she's there for them, and vice versa.
I was also happy to see that Cassia doesn't just wake up one day and suddenly question absolutely everything. She actually very much believes in what the society is trying to do, and only finds out little by little the things she thought were good might not be so perfect. She struggles with reconciling new, harsh truths with old, strong faith in a perfect protection society.

It wasn't anything spectacular, but there were enough things to push me to the other two books. ...more

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