4.5 starts Now I know that there many, many dystopian books out there that everyone claims to be AMAZING! and, some of them are. It depends on the book, and the reader. Anyway, i think that Matched is one of those really really great - not quite 'AMAZING' - books, except it deserves the credit that it gets.I love the premise, Ky is the best character in this book and Condie goes to great lengths to get readers to relate to him and appreciate his lifestory. I love the writing and the Society in which everything is controlled and planned out for you, from who you are going to marry to when you die. Its written beautifully and i love the poems and Cassia trying to figure out Kys story. Although i love this book, Cassia is not my favourite lead in a dystopian/romance book/series. I mean, i like her, but shes not anything special. She doesnt stick out in my mind. Theres no real reason that i can pinpoint, but i still dont love her. I do wish that we learn more about Xander, too. I am also not too excited to read the next book. I like the ending and want to find out what happens next, but, i don't know, I'm not finding myself racing out to the store to buy it, or even looking up reviews on my local library's website. I think i want to read the next book, but probably not anytime soon. I don't even know if i want to, but i figure, eventually, I'll get around to it. Eventually. Condie does a great job of connecting readers with Cassia. I really enjoyed reading her story. It's entertaining and facinating, and definitely a page turner! I dont know what else to say. Its an intreguing concept and written soooo well. If youre a fan of great dystopian novels, that are sometimes predictable but are written so well that you enjoy it, you will like Matched!

When I seriously got into reading books im pretty sure that this was the first book i stoped reading because it just wasnt good. I was even 10 pages away from the ending and i just couldnt do it. This book is SOOOOO BORING! I will give Ally some credit that there were a few parts that were good but the majority of the book was awful. I feel that the biggest thing that didn't keep my attention was the pacing of the story. It was too slow. I really wanted to like this book but maybe if the pacing was faster then i maybe would have gotten more out of the book. Unfortunately I give this book a crappy 2/5 stars.

Mini Book Review: Can't believe I have had this on my shelf for so long and haven't read it (and yes I have sequel too, lent it to Keira) A nice fast paced dystopian story for the YA and those who enjoy YA. I have to say I really am a big fan of this dystopian and post-apocalyptic trend as I tend to really enjoy them. They are often thought provoking and put out some interesting moral questions that can lead to some fabulous discussions. This one reminded me sort of like a cross between Brave New World and Logan's Run and I mean that as a compliment. The characters are intriguing and develop nicely, especially Cassia, you can really feel her struggle and disillusionment with society. I like her relationship with her parents, brother and grandparents, it felt real and honest. You can really see the appeal of the society that has been created and how it came to be, which makes Cassia's struggle so realistic. Nice added bonus the parents are not d-bags which is why I gave it an extra .25, as we know my feelings about the portrayal of parents in YA books. My only issues with this really are just a personal preference sort of things. The angsty stuff gets on my nerves since, well, I'm not a teen anymore and I felt the relationships between Cassia and Em wasn't developed enough. That's about it guys, I just think its a good story to lose yourself in for a while and look forward to cracking open Crossed when I get home tonight -- that's right Keira I'm taking it back tonight! Oh yeah and the whole time I was reading it I couldn't get the song Freewill by Rush out of my head -- read it you will get why! 4.25 Dewey's I am ashamed to say I got this over a year ago at the OLA conference from Penguin and didn't read it till now -- sorry guys!

This book will be among the top of the list for my favourite reads of 2011! It has won several literary awards, including: 2011 YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults and 2010 Publishers Weekly's Best Children's Books of the Year for Fiction. Cassia Reyes is a 17 year-old teenager living in a dystopian world. Teens can choose whether they will remain single or be "matched." Those wishing to be matched will be found a partner using a scientific balance of probabilities to result in the healthiest offspring. By gene-matching in this way, the Society effectively has wiped out cancer and other terminal and degenerative diseases. At Cassia's Match Banquet, her match is revealed to be none-other than her best friend, Xander Carrow. As is customary at the Match Banquet, Cassia receives a silver box containing a microchip that has background information about her match. When Cassia puts the chip into her system, she is shocked to see a picture of someone else flashed on the screen - and it is a picture of another boy that she knows: Ky Markham. Cassia wonders whether a mistake has been made regarding her match. Was Ky intended to be her match instead of Xander? The Society doesn't make mistakes, so how could this have happened? As Cassia tries to uncover the truth, she discovers that there is a lot about the Society that doesn't add up. I thought this was a fantastic dystopian novel, and dystopia is fast-becoming one of my favourite genres! I found myself daydreaming about what life would be like in the world that Condie has created: Obesity has been eliminated due to catered meals created and delivered for each mealtime that meets each individual's caloric needs, recreational time that is scheduled into each day to allow everyone time to de-stress, a vocation that is chosen for someone based on their strengths and abilities. It sounds to me like it would be a virtually stress-free world! With debilitating diseases wiped out, each person can live a long and healthy life until the age of 80 which is age that is "chosen" for each person to die. Another interesting concept in Condie's world is that life is structured to be as uncluttered as possible. This means that there are only 100 songs, 100 poems, 100 books, etc. Condie's world-building is quite complex. As long as you didn't question the Society's decisions, you could live quite blissfully in Condie's world. That is, unless, you wished for free choice. Even the recreational time isn't truly "free" because you can only choose one of the options given to you. Would you give up your right for free choice if you could live a relatively trouble-free life? Although such a life is tempting, I suspect that I would be one of those that would try to rebel against authority. Narrator Katie Simses was a perfect choice for this book. Her voice as Cassia was believable and authentic, and I found her interesting to listen to. I loved this book! Cassia is a fantastic character, and I love her evolution from one of the mindless Society followers to someone who begins to question the choices made for her. I may not have always agreed with the decisions Cassia made (for example, when she burned her Grandfather's poem), but I thought the choices she made were true to her character. I highly recommend Matched, and I can't wait for the story to continue in the next installment, Crossed. MY RATING: 5 stars!! Loved it!!

Cassia lives in the perfect Society. She attends a school with the optimum of classes perfectly designed to provide her with the education she will need for her future employment. After sufficient testing and observation, the Society selects the employment that she is most suited for. Prepared foods, with Cassia's exact nutritional needs are delivered to her prior to each meal time. The Society even functions to the extent that they select the perfect mate for each marriageable member, and when you time on earth is at it's end, they arrange a peaceful demise. It is at Cassia's matching ceremony that she first notes that there might be something amiss in her very structured Society. When reviewing the disk that should only contain biographical information about Xander, her perfect mate, she is shown the photograph of another young man, Ky Markham. While and official tries to reassure Cassia that this was and error, she knows that her Society does not make errors and she begins to wonder what it might mean for her, for Xander and for Ky. I was fascinated during my visit to this dystopian society. At first, it did seem like a comfortable place to live, where you would be healthy and employed till your final days. Then, like Cassia, I came to see that there really was no freedom. Yes you could chose which activity to attend, as long as you did attend. You couldn't enter anyone else's dwelling, I won't call it a home since Cassia never seemed to do anything there beyond eating dinner and sleeping. She didn't play there or even relax, there were other places where that was to be done and where she was continually observed carrying out those activities. Even at her house, she couldn't be sure that she wasn't being observed via the 'port'. The Society had no outlet for creativity. All poetry had been culled to an acceptable 100 poems, as had artwork and history. arg, that is not freedom. Finally, it was the constant fear that Cassia and her family lived in everyday that proved that there was something fundamentally wrong in this world. Fear that their conversations would be overheard, fear that what they had done would be perceived as wrong, fear that they couldn't live up to the expectations of the Society. Even with this variety of challenges to living in this Society, I can see that for many it would be perfect. They could mindlessly live each day and not be concerned what might happen during the next. The Society would have taken care of that for them. This is the first book in a trilogy with the next book, Crossed, due out in November 2011. I listened to the unabridged audio version that was read by Kate Simses. She did a wonderful job of portraying both the male and female characters. I would definitely listen to other books read by her. 9 hours 49 minutes. Penguin Audio. Suitable for ages 14+.

Once again I picked up this book because I liked the cover, it's simple get eye catching, perfect. Then I read the jacket and figured why the heck not. Now while I won't say that I was disappointed by the book I won't say I was thrilled either. The characters are all flat and it's really hard to care about Cassia and her boring love triangle. I did find it to be a pretty quick read so at least it didn't drag. I don't know whether it was the actual story fo the book that bored me or the setting of the sterile future world.I'll probably read the next one to see if it gets any better but I won't hold my breath.

You know a book is just plain 'okay' when you can't remember the lead character. I am getting my dystopian fiction all confused! I did enjoy this book, but it was really, really slow. The concept is fabulous - kind of a natural progression you could see the world taking if things started to get out of hand. There just wasn't enough action in the book to make it a page turner. And the love triangle (could you even call it that???) was boring...there was no chemistry between the characters...but how can there be chemistry when your lead character is rather uncharismatic? I am hoping Crossed will have more going on - more love story and more action...

i liked this book very much after reading it. it was sweet and somewhat encourages it's readers to challenge anything that doesn't seem right. i liked how the relationship developed between cassia and ty, slow but real. some interesting plot twists, very enjoyable.

The world in this novel is how I would imagine the future. With advanced technology and a better government. However, I did not see the idea of being paired up. It would make sense in the olden days, but in what is to be the future, it doesn't. I've read so many thoughts of people being matched because they're compatible. It does make sense, but if you're so similar wouldn't it be like sharing a life with yourself? It baffles me how people can't think about this, but apparently it still makes for a great book. The better govenrment isn't a terrifc thing though as the law is more enforced. I felt super bad for Ky learning about his history, there's always one person with a fate like this and it's entirely unfair.

I picked this book up based on the excerpt and was not disappointed at all. I loved the way that it was written, very poetic at times and sweetly romantic. I thought the main character was very real and the evolution of her realization about the Society she lives in and her lack of choices was very compelling. A very well-written 1st book. I look forward the picking up the second book in the Fall.