'Matched' by Ally Condie

Title: Matched (First in a planned trilogy.) (Book trailer.)

Author: Ally Condie

Genre: Dystopian Speculative Fiction Romance

The gist: Matched is what would happen if The Giver by Lois Lowry featured the love triangle from The Hunger Games, and then got together with a Fahrenheit 451 in which Guy Montag had children. It also has elements similar to The Uglies series, Brave New World, The Matrix and An Abundance of Katherines.

Cover art: The cover art is adequate. The background has a subtle holographic digital rain that makes it sparkle, but the lettering is a pale yellow that blends in too easily. The iconic image of a girl dressed in green in a bubble certainly fits the story but doesn’t really capture the depth of the book.

Official summary:

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.

The best part: On the romance scale, Matched measures closer to The Hunger Games than Twilight. Both of the male leads have many good qualities and seem like all-around decent guys.

The worst part: The beginning is awkward and the world-building feels a little shallow. The book suffers from ‘The Apocalypse Problem,’ i.e. vague references to things that drastically affected society but are largely unspecified. Matched refers to a “Warming” and also to at least one war, but the reader isn’t given much to go on. This is brushed off within the story as a lack of interest in history throughout the general public and could easily be something that is addressed in future books.

Characters: The characters are all likeable enough. The antagonist here is the government in general and the Officials are mostly portrayed as generally nice people who are ‘just following orders.’ What’s interesting here is that the Society is essentially nonviolent, so the repugnant acts are done with the cold efficiency of bureaucracy and punishments are emotional rather than physical. Removing the idea of physical torture adds an interesting level of compliance because causing emotional pain is easier to validate, hypothetically. The Officials and the government essentially represent a gentler version of the Milgram Experiment.

Plot: The plot is clearly patched together from many other great works but is centered on a romance. Those who roll their eyes at love stories will still enjoy Cassia’s journey of awareness of the larger world around her little bubble and those who are widely read will enjoy the parallels and references to literary works.

Setting: The world-building gets very detailed on a day-to-day level, such as what activities take up people’s time, but it lacks the depth of milieu that many fantasy fans crave.

Writing style: Ally Condie is a strong writer but some of her stylistic choices might be frustrating. One could easily debate in favor of the literary merit of her choices, but ‘literary merit’ doesn’t always equal ‘better casual reading.’ Luckily, much of that will slide right past the average reader who is engrossed in the engaging story and the ideas it encompasses.

The part in which I babble: Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book despite some of its flaws. It is likely to appeal to a wide variety of readers because it balances genre-blending well. Matched also seems like it would integrate into school reading lists quite well, as it relates not only to other dystopian works, but also incorporates some poetry. It’s hard not to be moved by the lyrical words of Dylan Thomas: “Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” As Condie was formerly a high school English teacher, it isn’t difficult to see where she gets her inspiration, and her ability to combine pieces of great works with the modern trend of paranormal romance is nothing short of brilliant.

Reminds me of: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Brave NewWorld by Aldous Huxley, The Giver by Lois Lowry, Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld.

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile (Penguin)
Release date: November 30, 2010

You can purchase the book here.