Review: Matched ~ Reading in Paradise

WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate... until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.

The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.

Review:

I got this book a long time ago. It was just sitting there and I knew I needed to get to get before the final book comes out. So, I picked it up, and from all the reviews, I was expecting something that would catch my attention immediately. I'm firmly against arranged marriages, and I was hoping for a girl that thought the same way. Instead, I get what I get with most dystopian books. The main character thinks like the government and everyone else, and because of some boy, she changes her thinking and tries to rebel. It was kinda like reading the Delirium series, except love is fine in the Matched world. Do you kinda get what I'm getting at?

Plot: Matched stars Cassia (which is an awesome name), a girl who was just recently matched, but on her microchip that contains the information of her match, Xander (even though she knows him already), she briefly sees someone else. Another boy she knows. Ky. Anyway, she thinks it a glitch, a mistake, but as she starts to get to know Ky more and more, she starts to wonder if it was a mistake to see himn on that microchip. While this happens, strange things start to happen in the Society, and they aren't good things.

I had trouble trying to understand how the world of Matched worked. It sounded like different communities and buildings all placed in a certain place and everyone did what the government told them, and that being Matched was one of the best things in the world. I tried to get what rebellion could there be, but the novel really doesn't hint on any rebellion until 3/4 of the way in. Then I realize at the 3/4 point that the Society is all bent on making things perfect. Perfect people, no disease, not dying of cancer. Perfect. And they were trying to find a way to perserve people, and bring them back. Basically, they were trying to create people who could live forever/become gods. A good dystopian, with government trying to create perfect people, but it just took me too long to grasp what type of society it was and the rebellion going on. It could have been just me, but that's how I view it.

There were hints throughout the book that Cassia was part of something bigger than what she thought she was. Her meal portions were made smaller, she was put with Ky a lot on the hiking trips, and she was tested on to see if she put her knowledge over her emotions. At the end, 'her Official' told her how she was part of this big experiment they did on her and Ky. At first, it seemed dumb. But then as I read, I realized that if this experiment didn't happen, then Cassia wouldn't have become what she is at the end of the book, and that she wouldn't have started to rebel. And the experiment helped to get our lovers together.

Characters: Cassia, no matter how interesting her name is, she herself I couldn't really relate to. She wasn't a bad character, but I just couldn't put myself in her shoes. I couldn't pretend to be her like all the other characters I've read about. She was brave, smart, and bold, but there was something different about her that I just couldnt'....connect. I loved it that she thought so deeply, but maybe it's because I don't think that deep or that sometimes she seemed like a little girl that made me not connect to her the way I do other characters. I did like her though.

Ky and Xander. Both are smart, think straight, and have their heads on their shoulders. Ky thinks deeply about what Society could be like if people could choose what to do instead of having the government choose for them, and that they should be able to write, and have poems, and freedom. Xander is somewhat like Ky, but he leads a bit more towards the government; he thinks of his family and everyone else. Don't get me wrong, Ky does too. Both boys are loveable that way. :D

Romance: The book is mostly about Cassia and Ky defying Society and falling in love. Most of it is about Cassia and her time spent with Ky and what he tries to teach her; about a society where they can choose who they marry and what they want to do and where they go. Though it seems like that they both fall in love over time, I believe it was somewhat like insta-love. The book takes place over one summer. Summer is only three months. Right after Cassia sees Ky's picture on the microchip, she's intrigued by him, and tries to go out of her way to try to learn more about him. It's forbidden, since she's Matched, but it doesn't take her long to realize she's falling for him. But it's the fact that it seemed like it took them several months instead a few weeks to fall in love that made me like their romance a bit more.

The arranged marriaged thing is to made sure the perfect offspring are created. I think it's stupid. Arranged marriage that is. People can't fall in love with someone their parents choose for them. Falling in love with someone is suppose to be a happy and an independant experience. Parents, let alone the government shouldn't be involved.

Ending: Of course, the government comes in and makes sure no one remembers the events that happened to Ky and Cassia. And then the government relocates her family to show who has control. The ending was decent. A good cliffhanger to what's to come. And it's predictable on what Cassia is going to do at the ending point, it's just how she's going to do it that makes a person want to keep going on to the second book.

Future: Crossed and Reached. And guess what: A MOVIE!! Thank you Disney.

Quotes:

Cassia's thoughts

"Is falling in love with someone's story the same thing as falling in love with the person himself?"

pg. 196

"Most of all I want Ky." pg. 300

"I think he might have meant to say something more, but when our lips touch, ther eis no need, for once, for any words at all." pg. 316

Ky and Cassia

"'What are they now?' he asks. He widens his eyes a little, leans closer, lets me look as long and as deep as I want.

"And there's so much to see. They are blue, and black, and other colors, too, and I know some of what they've seen and what I hope they see now. Me. Cassia. What I feel, who I am.

"'Well?' Ky asks.

"'Everything,' I tell him. 'They're everything.'" pg. 238

"'But if you were Matched,' I say softly, 'what do you think she'd be like?'

"'You,' he says, almost before I've finished. 'You.'" pg. 241

"'You don't have to write it back,' I say, feeling self-conscious. 'I just wanted you to know.'

"'I don't want to write it back,' he tells me. And then he says it, right out there on the Hill, and of all the words I have hidden and saved and treasured, these are the ones I will never forget, the most important ones of all.

"'I love you.'" pg. 275

Ky's thoughts in a letter to Cassia

Cassia.

I know which life is my read one now, no matter what happens. It's the one with you.

For some reason, knowing that even one person knows my story makes things different. Maybe it's like the poem says. Maybe this is my way of not going gentle.

I love you.

Rating, Cover, and Ending: