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.
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| 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!
