I finished Veronica Roth's Insurgent a week ago and heard that Matched was another decent book in the realm of teen dystopian novels and decided to pick it up.
 |
| (photographed: Ally Condie's Matched) |
"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 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."
When I bought this book, I didn't really know what I was getting into. So when this book came in the mail and saw the blurb on the front cover that said "Love triangle + struggle the powers that be = perfect escape" I was worried. (Just in case you didn't already know, I am not a fan of the romance genre, and tend to avoid romance books in general.)
Let me just take a minute to mention all the praise this book has written all over it. It is compared to The Hunger Games, The Giver, 1984, and Brave New World. And while I have never the latter two, The Giver was one of my favorite books growing up, and it was no secret that I adore The Hunger Games trilogy either.
Overall, I think the book let me down quite a bit. I didn't feel enough connection to Cassia. There were small moments where I liked her, but they were very far and very in between.
As far as the love triangle is concerned, I didn't care for it much at all. Cassia was an alright character- flat, though I do I feel as if that's the result of living in such a predictable, bland society. I also felt as if the book was pushing me to love either Xander or Ky when, in all honesty, I didn't care for either. My favorite character was probably Cassia's father.
What kept me going in this book was my interest in the structure in the society. Like the summary said, the society that Cassia, Xander, and Ky lived in was an incredibly meticulous one. The society was an intriguing, unique, and creepy one that I had to finish the book to figure out how it operated and shattered (if at all). I love seeing what makes "utopian" societies tick.
There were moments of reflection throughout the novel that I felt resonated.
"I hate the Officials the most when they do this: when they act as if they have seen it all before, as if they have seen me at all. When really they have never seen me at all. Just my data on a screen."
And now I raise an important question? Will I read the sequel Crossed?
Matched has not left the impression on me that Divergent did. I have no intention of purchasing and reading Crossed immediately. I have actually already moved onto an entirely different book series, but I am interested in reading it eventually.
"If I couldn't name it, would I even know what it is? Would I even feel it at all?"
No comments:
Post a Comment