ARC Tour & Review: Matched (Matched, #1) by Ally Condie

In the Society, Officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die.

Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s barely any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one . . . until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow—between perfection and passion.


Ally Condie if you're out there reading this....will there be a sequel?  This book has been talked about and hyped up all over the blogosphere and I couldn't wait to read it for myself.  Now that I have I can say I know why it's been talked about at the volume that is has been.  I loved it!  Well, I loved it if there's a chance for a sequel, if this is a stand alone I'm very sad and without getting into spoiler zones that's all I can say.

Because I'd never read any of Condie's previous works I wasn't sure what to expect, but after reading her work you can't help but see she has a talent for this type of career in spades.  The dystopian world she created in Matched is very unique and terrifying, and at the same time it's of course strangely fascinating.  The idea of having the Society select your perfect match for each individual sounded like such a romantic idea to me at first.  Condie describes the events leading up to the matching and the characters are all so excited and nervous, it was incredibly suspenseful.  After a while though, the romantic aspects of the situation fade and the controlling nature of the act presents itself.  Boo to the Society!

Condie kept with the typical elements and key components necessary for a dystopian novel but at the same time she was able to make it very much her own.  The struggle Cassia goes through as she realizes that her perfect life may not be so perfect after all is very sad.  She's not alone of course but here is where I may not agree with other readers.  Cassia struggles with her feelings for two different boys and her love for both of them is poignant.  I was kind of rooting for one boy and I'm thinking there's a good chance the majority will be rooting for the other.  Only time will tell but you'll have to pick up the book to see for yourself who you think is right for Cassia and what you think she should do about all of it.

I loved Matched and Condie's writing and I'm crossing my fingers to see more of these characters in the future.

I gave Matched (Matched, #1) 4 shamrocks!!!!