Matched is the first book in a trilogy. It falls into the YA Dystopian genre. I have only read the first book (Matched) so far, and within the first few pages or less, I was hooked. Some of the main themes that are found in this book are love, independence and standing up for what you believe in. I found that this book is similar to Delirium, with the love theme/forbidden love etc.. and how things are controlled by the government. So if you enjoyed Matched, then you should read Delirium, and if you enjoyed Delirium then you should read Matched.
Okay, so stop reading this review if you haven't read Matched because the next part will contain SPOILERS.
Once you turn 17, you get to go to your Match Banquet (if you're not going to be a single), and you get Matched with someone who the government has decided is your perfect match (there's a lot of science behind it all, and genetic information has a lot to do with it all). This is all done to make everyone have perfect, happy and long healthy lives. I guess another theme throughout this book would be natural selection; they want the best genes to enable everyone to be happy, and be equals and live a long life. Everyone in the society goes along and does as the government tells them to, because they are happy.
Cassia – the main character in this book – thinks that the society is wonderful and she's going to have a perfect happy life. We are first introduced to her as she's on the way to her Match Banquet. The book opens with her imagining what it would be like to fly, because her “heart pounds so quickly that it feels as though I could soar into the sky at any moment”
My first impression of Cassia was that she was carefree and excited. This was something she had been waiting her whole life for, everything she has done has been building up to this one night. When she find out that her match is her best friend Xander, she is overjoyed and can't believe her luck. But then she is reminded that luck isn't a real thing, it's all about probability.
When you have found out who your match is, you are given a silver box that contains a micro card that holds all the information about your match. After the Match Banquet, Cassia goes to look on her micro card to see if she can learn anything else that she doesn't already know about Xander. However, when the micro card loads, the face that appears on the screen isn't Xander's. It's the face of another guy she's friends with, one that is not her Match. Ky Markham.
Cassia is reassured by an Official that Xander is her match, and Ky's face appearing on her micro card was a mistake. However, that doesn't stop her mind from wondering, what if her and Ky were matched? And for the first time in her life, Cassia has to do something unspeakable, something she shouldn't do – question her society. Throughout the book, we can see Cassia falling for the wrong guy.
We learn a lot about Ky as the story progresses, as Cassia gets to know him better and she shares parts of his story with her. We can see the relationship begin to develop between them, as their characters develop.
With all of that going on, you have some of the sub plots. The first one you have, is her grandfathers Final Banquet. The Final Banquet, is what happens when you reach the age of 80. They have decided that dying at the age of 80 is the perfect age to die. So you die on your 80th birthday. Another sub plot is that no one in this world can write. They can all type, but that's all they learn to do, they have never learned to write – however Ky knows how to write and he teaches Cassia to write. You have the part where they chop down the trees in the gardens, and when they take the artifacts away (“A few treasures of the past float around among us. Though citizens of the Society are allowed one artifact each, they are hard to come by”). All of it helps build up to the fact that something big is going to happen.
Cassia's character develops a lot as the story plays out. She starts out as a carefree, happy person, following the rules all the time. Until, her grandfather (before he dies) shows her some forbidden poetry. A poem called “Do not go gentle into that good night”. This sparks something inside of her, it sparks her own rebellion, she will not go gentle. We can see how far her character has come, when she speaks to her Official, when they warn her about her growing relationship with Ky.
“I think people should be able to choose who they match with” I say lamely. “Where would it end Cassia?” she says, her voice patient. “Would you say next that people should be able to choose how many children they have and where they want to live? Or when they want to die?”
She finds herself disagreeing with what the Official has said, something which the Cassia we meet at the beginning of the book would not do.
Overall, with the main plot, sub plots and all of the character development, we get the sense that something huge is going to happen, everything is building up to this major event, to this rebellion that is hanging in the air – Cassia's whole family is on the verge of rebelling. However, that's when the book ends. We don't get to find out what's going to happen until the next book – which I will read as soon as I've got my hands on it.
Finally, I would say that this book is really easy to get into, there aren't really any boring or slow parts, you're always asking yourself what's going to happen next. An excellent read, I look forward to reading the next book.
If you have read this book, let me know what you thought of it in the comments below.