Endless Bliss | Happy Lifestyle Blog: Matched by Ally Condie {Book Review}.

Matched by Ally Condie {Book Review}.

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Goodreads kept telling me that I needed to read this book, so I finally gave into all the pressure. I'm really happy I did because this ended up being a really great read. I've been really into YA dystopian novels lately, and Matched definitely fit into that category. 

Matched is about a girl named Cassia who has always put her trust into the Society. The Society tells you what to eat and when, what to read, what jobs you can have, who your friends are, what you talk about, who you spend the rest of your life with and even which memories you're allowed to keep. When you're ready to take a mate, you sign up to be matched in the Matching Ceremony. On Cassia's matching day, she is matched with her best friend, Xander, and she couldn't be more thrilled. When she's looking at her micro-chip to learn even more about the best friend she's excited to spend the rest of her life with, another face pops up - the face of Ky, another boy who she's known almost her whole life.

When she's approached by the Society about this, they tell her it was a rare malfunction, and that she is, in fact, supposed to be with Xander, but Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky. When she starts falling for him, she starts to doubt all of the trust that she's put into the society, and she's faced with the impossible decision of who to choose: Xander or Ky.

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First of all, Cassia was an amazing heroine. A lot of the books I've read lately have had heroines or main characters that I didn't relate to or I didn't connect with or just made choices that made them look so dim that it was unbelievable. Cassia was actually a free-thinker, and she was willing to question the Society. When she's challenged by these people who she's supposed to put her trust in, rather than following along with their orders blindly, she actually questions the authorities and tries to find her own answers and ventures on her own path. 

As far as the love triangle is concerned, I kept on jumping back and forth between Xander and Ky. The first chapter makes you fall in love with Xander. He's essentially everything anyone could ever want in a guy - he's charming, attractive, thoughtful, caring, and funny. All the girls are pining after him, but it's unlikely for you to get matched with someone from your same city, which is why Cassia and Xander getting matched was such a big deal. Ky is great too, but it took me awhile to warm up to him. In a battle between Xander and Ky, I definitely would have been team Xander. It's easy to see why Cassia was matched up (though not technically so) with both of these boys. 

At the beginning of the book, I thought it was going to be centered around the love triangle between the three aforementioned characters, but it ends up being so much more than that. When Cassia realizes how little voice everyone actually has and how perfect (too perfect) the Society is, she isn't sure what to believe. Everything about the Society is flawless:

No one is overweight.
No one gets dirty.
No one experiences pain.
The literary world is stripped to just 100 poems, 100 songs, 100 paintings. 
The world is clean.
Marriages are arranged.
No one plays games.
There are no material possessions like watches and compasses. 
Food isn't consumed for taste, only to live, and they dictate when you eat it.
Everyone dies at age 80. 
And no one questions anything.

The story develops a little slowly at first as far as the bigger picture of what the series is about is concerned, but then it hits you right there at the end, and you'll find yourself wanting to read the rest of the series.

I give this book a 4.5 out of 5. The love triangle drew me in, but the story behind the Society and its rules is what kept me reading. I think anyone who likes dystopian novels will enjoy this book. 

For more from Ally Condie, check out her official website



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36 comments :

  1. LOVED this book when I read it!! The second book is great too but the third one was kind of disappointing. That's just my opinion though, you may love it!!

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  2. I really liked Matched, but wasn't as impressed with the rest of the series. This first book was a great hit though.

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  3. this sounds awesome! I love YA dystopian novels so will definitely give it a look! Thanks for sharing :)

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  4. I didn't realize GoodReads made suggestions. I guess I should log back into my old account and start poking around!

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  5. Adding to my TBR RIGHT NOW. Hooray!

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  6. I just got this book from the digital library. Now I'm even more excited to read it!

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  7. I think you're going to enjoy it, Lauren!

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  8. Yay! I hope you get to read it soon and that you like it!

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  9. I recently discovered it. It may be a new thing? I don't know, but they base it off of your lists. I love Goodreads!

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  10. If you like that genre, then I definitely think you'll enjoy this book!

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  11. I read the rest of the series, and it all went a bit downhill for me as well. This was a great first novel in the trilogy though.

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  12. I ended up finishing the trilogy, and I think the second book was actually my least favorite. I think that's mostly because they were apart for a good portion of the book. The third book was just okay too. I really enjoyed Matched though. I hate that it kind of fell off.

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  13. This is such a good book! May have to reread it.

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  14. Wow! This sounds like quite an interesting read.

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  15. I always love a good dystopian YA novel. I'm gonna have to put this one on my "to read" list.

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  16. I'm glad you like it too, Paulina! We seem to have the same taste in books.

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  17. It was so interesting and made me think a lot about how people follow other people blindly even when they don't have all the information. I loved it.

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  18. You definitely should. It was a great read!

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  19. I haven't read anything by this author yet but it looks really good! Onto the TBR list it goes :D

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  20. Finished Matched and Crossed with no problem, great reads. I'm struggling through Reached though. I felt like the series gets a little slow with the second two books.

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  21. This was the first book I read by her, and I was pleasantly surprised!

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  22. The second two books were a struggle for me to get through too. I loved Matched though.

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  23. Woah! Sounds amazing! I'm on my way finding this book to read! Thanks Tiffany!
    PS: I need a book suggestion, any with super horror/thriller story would be great!

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  24. It was an awesome read. I hope you enjoy it if you get around to reading it. As far as suggestions go, the best thriller/horror novel I've read that I can think of at the top of my head is Dark Places by Gillian Flynn. If you're looking for YA, I'm currently reading The Secret Circle series by L.J. Smith. It's about witches and stuff, but it's different than other typical witch novels. It's really interesting.

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  25. This book was amazing! I'm glad you enjoyed it too!

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  26. I loved this book! I was a huge Xander fan too, haha. :]

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  27. This book was pretty good, but I highly recommend reading the entire series because the books get so much better as they go along. In fact the third book is my favorite of all of them! Characters really start coming into their own in the 3rd book :D
    www.myfairdaily.com

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  28. Hi Kaelyn! I actually did read the rest of the series, and this one is my favorite. I'm glad that I finished the series so that I could find out what happened in the end, but I didn't think the rest of the series was as awesome as this first book. The second was my least favorite though.

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  29. My order of favorite would be the 3rd, 2nd, then 1st but I really do love and recommend this series as well!

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  30. I also really enjoyed Matched. I loved the world that the author created and it gave me a lot to think about. I see from your other comments that you read the rest of the series, so I'm not spoiling anything in saying that I didn't like the 2nd or 3rd book and I was disappointed with the series as a whole. I hate that so many dystopian series fall short for me. I feel like the first books are always really good and set up this fascinating new world but the rest of the series doesn't live up. A series that I enjoyed was The Chemical Garden series. It has it's flaws as well, but as a whole, it's one of the few dystopian novels I've enjoyed all of. #blogtribe

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  31. The 2nd and 3rd books weren't up to par for me either. Like you, I hate that series like these tend to fall off and be less impressive than the first book. It's such a shame. It did make me think though. I love seeing these altered worlds in dystopian novels. I haven't heard of The Chemical Garden series. I'll have to add that to my TBR list. Thanks for the recommendation!

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  32. You definitely need to find out what happens!

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  33. It really is a good series. I would love for her to release a novella or something.

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  34. I liked this series pretty well, but I never read the third book! I definitely need to remember to read it next time I go on a book run. Thanks for linking to Quote Me Thursday!

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  35. I loved this book! I have yet to read the series, but it was so great <3

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