Matched by Ally Condie

Summary from Goodreads:

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.

 I don't know how I feel exactly about this book. There was a point, perhaps in the middle, where I wasn't excited anymore to read the story. It could be because I read The Giver and The Hunger Games first and some of the ideas in Matched are reminiscent of those found in the previously mentioned titles. In fact, I felt that it's mash-up of the two. A society where every action is controlled. From food, to clothes, to what movies to watch and music to listen to, to jobs, to whom you are supposed to marry, even down to whether it's time for you to die or not. This is "The Giver" part of the story. "The Hunger Games" part is the rebellion and war part. It was when the story showed the gruesome bombings that happened to the provinces who rebelled and the constant suppression of future rebellion by The Officials through harsher and stricter means of control. And think Fahrenheit 451 as the Officials also burns and sanctions literary works.

Perhaps its because the ideas, while worth contemplating, are no longer new to me.  But on the upside, I do love the use of poems to convey a message or story, and things started to pick up again in the last few pages that I started getting the excitement back. This is the point where you will be kept guessing as to whether the truth was a lie or that the lie was the truth. Questions started popping up inside Cassia's head about The Society and whether this controlled life is really the only way to go, and she is out to get answers. Although this doesn't have the rush, the adventure, and the grittiness of Chaos Walking or Hunger Games (well maybe not yet, in the second installment perhaps?) but it's a pretty decent dystopian novel and judging from the ending, I think it still has potential.

 Matched is a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults (2011), Publishers Weekly's Best Children's Books of the Year for Fiction (2010).

 This is my 17th entry for the Award Winning Books Reading Challenge Hosted by Gathering Books.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ABNKKBSNPLAKo by Bob Ong (REVISITED)

Image
"Bakit namamalo si Miss Uyehara? May mga notebook bang lumilipad? Bakit masakit sa ulo ang Mafhemafics? Ano ang lihim sa likod ng pagkakaibigan nila Pepe at Tagpi? Bakit may mga taong nakapikit sa litrato? Masarap ba ang Africhado? Sino si Tigang? Bakit may mga classroom na kulang ang upuan? Masama bang mag-isip nang malalim habang naglalakad? Saan ang Ganges River sa Pilipinas? Bakit may mga umaakyat ng overpass pero hindi tumatawid? Sino ang webmaster ng bobongpinoy sa Internet?" I remember having read this book sometime during the end high school or the start of my college years. I did not think much of this book back then. Now, re-reading it as a legitimate (ehem) adult, I found that my appreciation for it has increased.   The power of this book lies in nostalgia. The shared experiences of student life, as humorously related by Bob Ong. And I realized that these experiences, more or less, never really varies THAT much from era to era. The 70s born Pinoy
Read more

Instead of Three Wishes by Megan Whalen Turner

Image
Image from Goodreads The first time I've heard of Megan Whalen Turner is through Chachic of Chachic's Book Nook . If you follow/frequent her blog, you'd know that she is a huge fan of Whalen's The Thief Series. Being a fantasy fan myself, I've put in The Thief in my (very long) book wish list. Since, I haven't really gotten around acquiring The Thief just yet, when I saw her name on this book I thought it would be a good chance for me to get acquainted with Whalen's writing style. Instead of Three Wishes contains seven short stories, all depicting the existence of magic in everyday lives. 1. Plague of Leprechaun - Tells the story of how a small idyllic town of North Twicking is shaken up by the news of a Leprechaun Sighting, bringing in an influx of tourists coveting the bag of gold that a leprechaun brings. All this chaos proves to be too much for Mag Malleaster, the local innkeeper, and to Roger Otterly, a struggling painter commissioned to come up w
Read more

Filipino Friday #1: Introductions

Image
What Reader Species Are You? Reader Species Infographics by Lauren Kelly I found that I fit in several of the categories and may as well be what the infographic refers to as a  Cross-Bred Reader Mutt.  Class: Book Lovers,  Complusive The Hoarder -  I do have the tendency to acquire books faster than I can read them. I can't fit them on my bookshelves so I have them shoved inside a drawer beside my bed, like some secret stash of cookies (which I also have). Plus, my Kindle holds quite a number of e-books. And yet I still acquire more. Hee.  Situational The Kindle Convert - I used to be the type who would never consider getting an e-reader. I thought that digital reading will never equate to the experience of reading a physical copy of a book. But my sister persuaded me to get one, so I got one, which I named River, and since then I thought to myself, where have you been all my life? The Sleepy Bedtime Reader - I definitely do most of my reading before bed. And
Read more