Cassia, the main character in
Ally Condie’s novel Matched, completely
trusts the autocratic society she lives in. Everything in her world is planned out
for her. Her society will choose her future husband, the job she will have for
the rest of her life, and like her fellow citizens she will even know the day
of her death because people in this world die on their eightieth birthdays. Even
music and literature are controlled by the government. The Society has
preserved exactly one-hundred poems, one-hundred songs, one-hundred of any art
form they deem worthy for their citizens. Works not making the lists are
destroyed.
Cassia’s trust in the society
waivers on the day she finds out her match, which is the person she will spend
the rest of her life with. She feels lucky to be matched with Xander, a boy
from her neighborhood she has known for years. But another match is also
briefly show to her, that of Ky. Ky is also someone she knows although he is
considered an aberration and is the adopted son of a couple living in her
neighborhood. His past is a mystery to her and so is the possibility that she
might have a choice in her life. People are not supposed to be matched with
more than one person.
This apparent mistake causes
Cassia to start questioning the happy and perfect world the government has
designed for her, and she starts to see her entire society unravel in small but
significant ways. Tension builds throughout the book and while I was
disappointed that it ended on a cliffhanger—it’s book one of a trilogy—I’m
definitely anxious to find out what happens in Crossed, the second book of the series.
John
