Matched - Ally Condie

Title: Matched
Author: Ally Condie
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile 
Genre: YA, Dystopia/Utopia, Romance
Pages: 400
Rating: 3 Stars


I really expected to love this book so much more than I did. It was hard to get into the story, due to the fact by how much it dragged. It's not that it was a slow read, I feel like it just lacked a lot of substance and storyline. Most of the excitement takes place at the very end really quickly. The ending ended well enough to make me want to read the next book in the trilogy, but I didn't rush out to get it like I normally would in a series.


Cassia Reyes, lives in a society where the government matches people based many things using algorithms. The matches are said to be the most compatible person there is for you, this is the person you will marry. When you turn 17, you attend the Match Ceremony where you will receive your match, on a huge jumbotron in front of all the other matchees, your family and theirs. When you are matched you're given this microchip that you put into your screen at home and learn everything about your match. Cassia is matched to her best friend Xander, which she couldn't be happier about. But when she puts her microchip in, first Xander's face pops up but then disappears and is replaced by a boy named, Ky. Throughout the story Cassia has to come to terms with who she really loves and wants to be with, which of course involves many complications. The biggest complication being that Ky is an Aberration and Aberrations cannot be matched. Cassia spends most of the story struggling with figuring out who is meant to be with. 


I really had trouble connecting to this story and just couldn't get into it the way I hoped I would based on reviews I've seen and read. Like I said, it's not because of the story, characters or contact, I just felt like it lacked that spark that makes you so into a story that you can't put it down. I was also bothered by who she had picked in her mind by the end of the story, but that has nothing to do with the book just my own feelings. But the ending ended in a way where I know I'm going to read the sequel to find out where the story will go.