Book 41: Matched

by Ally Condie

Yes, once again I find myself with a teen who wants to read a book that is currently popular and I know nothing really about it. I went to one of my sources who is an avid reader and currently a collage student and she told me she was 3/4 of the way through it and was not discovering any inappropriate content.  Wish I didn't have to ask around to see if books for teens are overly sexual, but in today's society you have to work to keep kids minds pure. Having found all 3 of the books in the series for a total of $9 I decided to go ahead and read the book myself.

This book follows the theme of so many of the books our teens are reading these days, the idea of society controlling civilization. That part is a bit scary, in terms of why are so many authors writing the same theme over and over again and why as society are we scrambling to read those same theme of books over and over again.  In many ways you could pick up this book and not be sure whether you were reading the Hunger Games, or Divergent, aside from the characters names and in this case, at least through book 1, a lack of violence that the other books all contained.

In this book Cassia is going through her life as directed by society. On her 17th birthday she attends her Match ceremony where she is shown the person who she will marry when she turns 21. The problem is, she knows him.  That in itself is very rare.  On top of it, there is another problem with the microcard she is given to view details about him.  This problem launches her into meetings with the person she begins to call Her Official. An officer who is there to make sure she follows a certain path, the path of society.  This event and the death of her Grandfather is causing Cassia to being to wonder.  Wonder is what her Grandfather says even her late Grandmother would have wanted her to do.  Wonder, is this life right, is there more out there. 

As the book continues Cassia begins the journey of trying to figure that out with help from someone she never gave much thought to before.  Ky is that person, he's an outsider in many ways, but now Cassia is realizing that he has been there all along.  Will they discover truth, and be willing to take the chances needed to realize what is really going on in the world they live in.

Too much can be given away in a book review or on a cover of the book.  I don't wan to do that here, so you'll just need to read it yourself. I've moved on to book 2, and hope to finish the series before giving a final ok to my 12 year old to read the books, but so far I feel she could read book 1 for sure.

I'd give the book 5 stars.  So far it's a great series and less violent than Hunger Games or Divergent, even with the similar content.