Matched, by Ally Condie, is the story of a young girl who is suddenly handed forbidden words. Cassie has always followed the rules, wanted what was laid out for her, and anticipated a content life in Society. Until the day of her seventeenth birthday, when she attends her Matching Banquet. At first, everything goes even better than she expected. She is paired up with her childhood friend, and although she initially feels cheated of the mystery of romance from a stranger, she realizes that he is a standard by which she would have judged any other boy. Then everything changes, when there is a computer glitch showing her Match to be someone else – someone she wouldn’t have otherwise considered. In addition to that, her Grandfather, just about to pass away on his 80th birthday, shares a poem which stirs up emotions she’s never felt before.
As the summer progresses, Cassie learns about real life and love and discovers a seemlingly hopeless struggle for independence and survival that’s been going on around her throughout her whole life. In a world where everyone’s life is measured and planned and directed, does she have any real choices to make?
The author uses the unfolding romance in this story to draw a picture of an emerging mind. As Cassie discovers who she is, she also finds out that the what and why of her life are not what she thought they were. This book reminded me significantly of “The Hunger Games
,” by Suzanne Collins, because the main character is similarly well-drawn and internally passionate. There is not much in the way of violence, however, except in the ‘help, I’m being repressed, see the violence inherent in the system’ sort of way. Significant mental pressure is put on every character as they struggle to color their lives inside the preformatted lines the Society places on them. Another book this is reminiscent of is “The Giver
,” by Lowis Lowry, which is a story about a boy’s choice between remembering and forgetting.
If you like engaging stories that follow the trend of dystopian young adult fiction in the current market, but have an aversion to supernatural situations or children who are rebellious and annoying, you will enjoy Matched. I rate it for people 12 and above on the Aardvark scale, for stressful societal issues.
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Tagged as:
dystopian,
fantasy,
scifi,
ya
