Stars in Entertainment

Review of Matched, by Ally Condie

(This is a new segment in my blog that I will be doing every so often. When I come across any part of the entertainment business worth mentioning as family friendly, and clean, I will mention it, and do a review of it. This will include music, books, TV shows, movies, and possibly games [I do not own a video gaming system at the moment, so there won’t be many of the gaming ones, if any.])

As people who are close to me know, I love young adult/teen fiction (especially the fantasy, sci-fi, and paranormal stories!). Although, nowadays, finding appropriate reads in the genre is rather difficult. It can get frustrating for someone who’s a Christian, because reading young adult fiction is trial and error, unfortunately. There have been times that I will open a book, get really into it, then, I’ll have to stop reading it for one reason or another. This book, however, really needed no such action.

The cover definitely caught my eye, and, upon opening the cover to read the jacket description, it said: “In the society, officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die.” The novel is the story of Cassia Reyes, who lives hundreds of years into the future. She is part of a society that, just as the summary says, basically decides everything for you. The whole society is based on crazily accurate probability. It is described as an almost perfect society, save for the occasional glitch in the system.

The book starts off with Cassia’s birthday, attending a futuristic event called a matching ceremony. In this event, a group of seventeen year olds are paired with another young person to be their “match”, or, potential spouse. To Cassia’s relief, she is matched with her best friend, Xander. It is a very strange occurrence to be matched with someone who lives in your same province (or even your own city for that matter!). All of the other young people in the room were matched with someone far away.

Well, Cassia is very excited to be matched with her best friend, and is very certain that they should be together. However, at the ceremony, people receive little microcards (as they’re called) that contain pictures and what not of their match. It has the pictures of Xander (most of which she’s already seen) but, while she is viewing it, another face shows up on the microcard-a boy she knows named Ky. Ky is what is known as an aberration. He can’t ever be matched or get a higher ranking job as a result of things his father had done. As a result, Cassia finds herself confused, as well as an attraction to both boys that she is having a hard time figuring out.

Cassia’s narration throughout the story is very soft. While she is a very strong young woman, there is a very distinct poetic, and flowery way about her voice. The way Condie writes with Cassia as the narrator flows beautifully. Being a dystopian story, it also gets you thinking about many important issues that arise in the story: Can one truly be free without the right to choose? Is perfection possible in any society? Should there be human control over life and death?

Throughout the story, Cassia seems to find herself wondering about these issues-and slowly starting to doubt this entire society that she-and everyone else- always had put such trust into (She also appears to be doubting whether or not the society was right on religious faith being just a myth). The society carries many secrets-most of which are kept under strict lock and key. However, when some of these secrets surface, the society has some interesting ways of handling them. Some of the ways are pretty mild in some respects, but others are quite scary, especially when outright rebellion is involved.

This story is impressive to me on many levels: For one thing, I would like to note that there was absolutely no profanity of any kind (not even words considered ‘mild’ or euphemisms), as well as no pre-marital sex-which seems to be very common in many young adult novels these days. There were two kisses in the book: one between Cassia and Xander, and then a second time between Cassia and Ky. The kisses, however, are not described in great detail.

Matched does start off rather slowly, I will admit. But there is something about Cassia’s narration that pulls you in and holds you there in the story. Not only is it beautifully written, but, it is a novel that is definitely proof that you can write a wonderful, thought provoking story that is clean. Matched is definitely a treat you don’t want to miss. I would also like to point out that its sequel, Crossed, is coming out in August. I am very interested to see where Condie takes her story with Cassia, Xander, and Ky.

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on these things.” (Philippians 4:8, ESV)