Matched - Allie Condie

Also reviewed by Mindy.

Summary:  In the society, officials decide.  Who you love.  Where you work.  When you die.

Cassia has always trusted their choices.  It's hardly 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.

Matched is a story for right now and storytelling with the resonance of a class.  (Summary from back of the book and image from http://wikimedia.org/)

My Review:  I think I went into this book with expectations too high .  It was recommended by many different people and many who like the same kinds of books I do.  And I just wasn't that impressed.  The culprit could be that my students just finished reading The Giver, which to me is the must-read dystopian book for young adults/children.  It felt like a knock off of The Giver and The Hunger Games.  I loved those books so much that this felt like an imposter.  While it's not identical there are too many parallels: choosing spouse (TG), taking pills (TG), choosing jobs (TG), controlling government with sinister people in power (HG), young adult star-crossed lovers/love triangle (HG) and it being a trilogy (both novels, although TG is a companion set, not really a trilogy).

But, that's not to say I didn't enjoy it or finish it.  I'm just a bit disappointed.  Maybe Crossed will be different or change how I feel.  I also wasn't wrapped up in the romance between Cassia and Ky.  I don't know why I couldn't feel it/buy in.  I just couldn't, which made it all the more difficult to say I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I'm sure my students will love it, especially since I've gotten them into this dystopian lit genre now.  It just didn't do it for me.

For the sensitive reader:  A couple kisses, but nothing to bat an eye at.

Rating: 3.75 stars

Sum it up:  Another rehash of the dystopian you-don't-get-to-choose-your-life scenario.