Review for "Matched" by Allie Condie

Book Summary:


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 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 ever known and a path that no one else has dared to follow. 

My Rating: 2.5 stars


Review:

OK. For a first book, it wasn't terrible. I just didn't exactly like it. Good dystopias that have good plotlines and are original and make sense are hard to come by these days, and while the summary above certainly made "Matched" sound good, I was disappointed by the book itself. It doesn't make my "Best books I've ever read" list at all. And to be totally, one-hundred percent honest, I didn't really like any of the main characters. I didn't feel like they were relatable at all, and I wish there had been better character development. There were certainly enough pages in the book that she could've thrown a little bit of development in there, but nope. And of course, this had to be a YA with a love triangle. I don't hate love triangles, but I don't love them, and unless the author is really good and the love triangle makes sense, (which hardly happens), they just come off as really annoying. Sometimes it feels like authors try way too hard to get people to like their books. And when the characters in the triangle (in this case, Xander, Cassia, and Ky) are not well-developed, it feels like she just threw the love triangle in there for the fun of it, rather than actually having it make sense. I didn't get a good feel from Cassia right away, and I liked Xander for being a good friend and not a douche-bag. Ky was OK, and the scenes when they're writing poetry on leaves are actually kinda cute, but didn't make sense, because you have technology and they know how to read, but they don't know how to write. Like, come on already. In a dystopia, I feel like authors should try to make it as real as possible without taking away from the futuristic world. Having a society where people do not know how to write just sounds stupid. One thing I did like, however, was her grandfather. I liked that his "death" dinner included pie and other things. Clearly, Grandfather knew what he was doing when he chose it.

Anyway, I don't think I'll be reading the others, unless I can get them from the library. Hope no one was offended by this review. :)