Matched by Ally Condie Review

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.

This was a really interesting book that I originally decided to start because I am a huge fan of dystopian books and it has always been high on my recommendation page. It is a story about love and finding you place in the world. I did really like that, for the most part, the beginning chunk of this book didn't just revolve around Cassia complaining about not knowing who to choose. The second chunk, however, did get a little winning with Cassia not knowing what to do and who to pick. They also did a really good job at setting up the rules of this society and sticking to them. And I hear a lot of people comparing this book to The Giver and I can see where that branches from but a lot of the comparison are just from some of the things all dystopian books have. I really loved all the parts in this book where they shared lines from poems and made comparisons to things happening in Cassia's life like the line used throughout this whole book which was the idea of "do not go gentle into that goodnight". Some moments did feel a little dragged out like all the chapters dedicated to Cassia and Ky hiking, I understand it was supposed to be this special private place for the two of them to get away from society but there were so many it got long. I also really like that they managed to loop everything together nicely by the end of this book but I wish they didn't leave so much at the end open that you had to read the second book for closer instead it would have been better if they finished this book off and left a little open for those who wanted to continue but also have that ending for those who wanted to end there. I also really liked that this book gave subtle hint to things going wrong throughout the book and by the end, it was reviled what was actually going on in the society. And just overall this was a really great read.

And if you haven't read the book and want to you can click right here and it will take you to a playlist of me reading the whole book.