Game, Set, Matched

Okay, I lied. I'm too eager to just post one book review a week. Do you know how many books I've read recently that I can review? At least 6! That means this thing would last about a month and a half, and that's not even including the books that I will read! (I'm really hoping this isn't a phase and that I will continue to review books at least once a week, but given my track record, I can't promise ANYTHING. 

Oh my God! It's the main character of the book! It all makes sense now!
Note to readers: if you can't picture the main character, just look at the cover. Also, I do have to give props to the designer of the cover, but it's a bit of a stretch to say it's the representational of the theme of the book. 

            Boy, dystopian futures are all the rage right now, huh? You can almost certainly pin it on the Hunger Games trilogy in 2008, and ever since then, it’s been a jump-on-the-bandwagon-sci-fi-YA-fiction freak fest. Okay, the freak fest part I don’t mean, because I do happen to enjoy a healthy dose of sci-fi, but I really wanted to end that very hyphenated phrase with alliteration.

             Matched, by Ally Condie is no different than several other YA dystopian futuristic novels; it has a teenage girl who is a little more special than everyone else somehow in a society with a strict, orderly and oppressive government in the future, but so far in the future we've found life on other planets, just renamed countries and odd names and stuff. Oh, and there’s a boy she likes. And another that she did, but doesn't.

The point is, this book wasn't special enough to separate it from all the others in its field. I mean, she has a crisp writing style and paints a picture of the world Cassia is living in well enough, but not so much that you want to beat your head against the wall as you exclaim, “WE GET IT. YOU CAN DESCRIBE STUFF.” However, we never really get to know the main character. Even after 369 pages (heh heh), I’m still not entirely sure what her personality is. I know she loves her family, is really good at sorting, and really likes this guy named Ty.  Other than that, what else do you know about her? Not a whole lot, which doesn't bode well for this book. Aren't dystopian futures about the people in that universe and the events that occur? She doesn't do a great job of letting us get to know Cassia. That is, unless Cassia is a vapid airhead, in which case, she does a great job of fleshing out the main character. I mean, Condie puts in a few places that Cassia’s personality test predicted some rebellion and fierceness, but we never really get that! OK, so she secretly broke a few rules, but not in a way I would truly classify as rebellious.

           And then there’s the other characters: Xander, whom we get a good idea of him as a 2-D character: handsome, smart, rule-follower, affectionate, a real golden boy. Ty, the other love interest, is quiet, very smart but hides it by acting perfectly mediocre, tormented by his past, and mysterious. He’s probably the only truly likable character; that is, he’s the only one you really feel anything for at all.

            The plot moves along well, but all this “Oh my goodness, I love this one guy but am matched to another” junk was starting to fray my nerves. Unfortunately, it’s a pretty substantial part to the story.

The best thing about this book is the possible future she creates; the perfect society run by the government (literally called The Society) which regulates everyone’s lives to a tee to ensure a perfect and equal life for everyone. I thought she could have really expanded on this idea, the balance between a world without diseases and obesity, a world without unemployment, really old age or depression/strife, but also a world without the freedom of choice, creativity, or rebellion. Now there’s a topic I was really interested in: is it worth it to trade cancer for a government assigned job and mandatory relocation when necessary? Is it worth it to trade diabetes and obesity for tasteless food perfectly designed to your body’s needs? (Obviously, no one wants to be obese, but would you choose to be perfectly fit if that meant you had to eat bland porridge for three meals a day?) Well, you get the point. But that whole trade offs of personal freedoms for a perfect society intrigues me.

           All in all, if you’re a sixteen-year-old girl, which I am not, you might enjoy this more than me. Unless you like Twilight and obsessive teen girls, then this is less your style, but more than the Hunger Games. (My point is that she at least didn't go over the top with the lovey-dovey “let’s just be together forever even though we’re 17” sort of stuff.) However, I would recommend the Hunger Games if you have been living under a rock or in a hole, or God forbid, under a rock in a hole.  *Shudder* Or Divergent/Insurgent, which I thought were pretty decent, even other people didn't like those two. At least there was no love triangle, though!