Review: Matched By Allie Condie

MATCHED By Ally Condie
Publish Date: November 30, 2010
Publishers:Dutton Juvenile (Hardcover)
Age Recommendation: 12 and older, not much to look out for.
Cover Love: I loved this cover! It was simple but yet it called you attention. On my ARC copy it had this shiny cover and the letters had this cool texture that books have. Is the finished copy the same?
Summary from Goodreads:

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:

The book starts with Cassia's --and her best friend Xander's--match banquet. It is where the beginning of the rest of their lives start. First they will be matched with the person they must spend the rest of their lives with and have children with them(as creepy as that sounds) when the time comes. As Cassia's name is called, the screen in which the match is revealed at is blank. That could only mean one thing: the match she was assigned to was right there in that room with her.
So yeah she gets matched with her best friend Xander, and she couldn't be more happier. But then after Xander's face is shown, it quickly disappears and another familiar face : Ky Markham's. A mysterious and quiet boy who has secrets of his own. And now Cassia is more confused than ever.

That is where the beginning of the whole dilemma starts. I love how the author uses a lot of detail and she focuses a lot on the little things. Like for example, every day or so, Cassia must put on a device that monitors her dreams, and If there is anything odd there, the Society knows. Kinda creepy but it's just to show how little privacy and freedom Cassia's world provides.
And the words exchanged between Ky and Cassia are so beautiful and it brought the characters to life . It made it hard not to fall in love with Ky .
I also found myself wanting to be Cassia's friend and the whole time I was cheering her on. She questions everything she believes in and fights for whats right! Girl power baby! She is a kick-you-know-what heroine and I cannot wait to read more about her!
If you like dystopian novels, then I highly recommend this one. READ IT, READ IT!
Ally even if you are not reading this, which would be so cool if you were, just letting you know that you just earned yourself another crazed fangirl! Thank you for writing such an amazing novel.

Though I gotta admit that t there is one thing that bothers me about this book, and that was that I also read The Giver by Lois Lowry, and I couldn't help but notice some similarities between them. Am I the only one? Just wanted to point that out, so I think it gets some minus points for originality but extra points for awesomeness! Be ready for a major cliffhanger at the end of the story. We all dislike cliffhangers but we gotta admit, secretly we all get more hyped up because of them.

My Rating(OUT OF 5):

What's Next?
CROSSED by Ally Condie
Publish Date: November 1, 2011-- ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?
Publishers: Dutton Juvenile