Review: Matched by Ally Condie (Spoilers)

Summary: In the Society, Officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die.

Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s barely any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one . . . until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow—between perfection and passion.

Matched is a story for right now and storytelling with the resonance of a classic.

Review: **This is an ARC review, and Matched is not officailly released until November. There will probably be spoilerish info in this review, so if you prefer to wait until November to know about this book, you should jsut go ahead and stop reading now. For the rest of you- read on!**

So, I loved this book! As it turns out, the more dystopian books I read, the more I realize that I really love this subset of YA books. Matched first crossed my radar a few months ago when Kami Garcia and Margeret Stohl (Beautiful Creatures) said that it was "the best book you've never read", and since Matched doesn't come out until November, I hadn't read it- but I wanted to! Last week I recieved a ARC from the publishers and was completely sucked in from the get go.

The thing about dystopian for me is that when it's done well, it's not that hard to see how we can go from where we are now to the way the book depicts life. In Matched, the society sees everything, hears everything and decides everything. They control every aspect of life, meals and milestones and even who you marry and when you will die. They make all these decisions into big ceremonies so that the members of the society are excited about it instead of feeling angry about their free will being taken away. It's all a way to control everyone and everything. The Society even provides each citizen with pills that help with aother aspects of their lives- one which provides nutrients in case of an emergency, one that helps you relax if you are nervouse and the last which remains a mystery to everyone and can only be taken if an official tells you to. There is no part of your life that the Officials haven't got their hand in.

In this book, it's hinted that all is not well in some of the outer provinces and that those in control, the officials, are losing that hold on the masses. One clear sign of that comes at the end of the book (SPOILER ALERT- from here on out, you have been warned!) when Cassia's official comes to her to talk about why Cassia and Ky were torn apart. The official tries to act as though Cassia and Ky coming together was all a plan, an experiment, and that everyone had acted just how the officials had predicted. Essentially trying to take these personal and special moments away from Cassia. However, Cassia and the reader, can easily see that the official is fishing for information, that it hadn't been under their control at all, and that's why it had to be stopped.

Cassia is a wonderful charecter. She's poised at the edge of adulthood and the first step is go to her Matching Ceremony, where she will find out who the Society has paired her with for marraige. She is amazed and excited when she finds that she will be paired with Xander, her best friend. Then she's see's the face of another friend, Ky, flash across her screen before it goes blank, and from that moment forward nothing is the same. Cassia has a tough road to walk. She does truly love Xander, but not the way she finds that she loves Ky as she gets to know him. Together Cassia and Ky might be able to change the world.

I loved the end of the book, when after Ky and his family are removed from Mapletree Borough, and after Cassia's family has been notified of their impending departure, that you begin to see the seeds of dissent amoung other members of the community. You begin to see that the Official's control isn't as complete as they pretend it is, and that maybe Cassia and Ky are not alone in their feelings that everyone should have choices in their life.

The relationship between Cassia and Ky was beautiful to see as it grew from curiosity to love and partnership. In the same vein, seeing Cassia grow within herself as she begins to see, really see, the world around her for the first time is fascinating. From the outside we see it right from the start, but Condie did an amazing job showing us what it would be like to live within it and never know anything else. How these revelations are scary, but can also create a resolve to make it better.

This was a fabulous book. I'm assuming that there will be a sequel (right!?!) because Matched leaves off just as Cassia has made the decision to stand up for herself, her relationship with Ky and in a bigger way, for all the citizen's of the society. I can't wait to find out what happens next for all of them!

About Ally Condie:
http://www.allysoncondie.com/
http://twitter.com/allycondie

Rating:

Linger

Linger
By: Maggie Stiefvater
http://www.maggiestiefvater.com/

The sequel to Shiver follows the story of Grace and the wolves of Mercy Falls.

Maggie says: "It's about after. What happens after you discover there are werewolves in the wood, after you've fallen in love for the first time, after you've lost what you think you can't live without, after you've become someone you can't live with."

...grace...

This is the story of a boy who used to be a wolf and a girl who was becoming one.

Just a few months ago, it was Sam who was the mythical creature. His was the disease we couldn't cure. His was the good-bye that meant the most. He had the body that was a mystery, too strange and wonderful and terrifying to comprehend.

But now it is spring. With the heat, the remaining wolves will soon be falling out of their wolf pelts and back into their human bodies. Sam stays Sam, and Cole stays Cole, and it's only me who's not firmly in my own skin. (from maggiestiefvater.com)

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I got this book as an Adavanced Read Copy- so fair notice- this book doesn't officially come out until July and although I'll try to avoid spoilers, if you don't want to know what happens until you can actually pick the book up in your hands, then I'd stop reading right now.

I loved Stiefvater's first book, Shiver, and was definitly waiting not so patiently to read Linger, so of course when I had the chance to read a fellow Book of the Month'er's ARC, I jumped at the chance. I read it about a week ago, spead through the book in one night (so I could forward it on) and then sat on this review since then. There was so much to digest that I couldn't justify just jumping on and posting a review without really taking the time to think about the book. Of course, as expected, Linger was fantastic.

As in Shiver, the chapters alternate between characters, this time following Grace, Sam, Isabel and one of the new wolves, Cole. Sam is still reveling in his new life, spending each day, even the frigidly cold ones, with Grace. Cole, who wanted to become a wolf as an escape, finds that he is unable to stay one, despite the cold. Isabel is looking for some sort of human contact, and finds it in an unlikely place, and soon finds herself inexplicably linked to Cole. And Grace, finds herself being torn apart at the seams, falling ill from a sickness that no one can diagnose, but which they all know is somehow linked to that day she was bitten by the wolves, and the mysterious way the wolves of Mercy Falls meet their own fate. On top of that, add in the fact that Grace's parents have finally decided to, you know, be parents and you have an increadible moving book about trying to hold it all together when the world seems to be falling apart.

Some things I loved were that despite the kind of heavy material that filled this book (you will want a tissue box handy) there were some great light moments, especially in the form of Grace's best friend Rachel. Rachel, to me, is hysterical- I love how she refers to Sam as The Boy and that she is always there for Grace, regardless of how crazy the issue. I also kind of loved to hate Cole in the beginning, and then in the end, just loved to love him. He was great character, who even though he isn't the main focus, managed to make quite a leap from being the tortured, druggie rock star who just wants to get away, to the guy who is willing to put in a huge effort to try an save Grace.

As far as Grace and Sam are concerned, Linger really sees them coming into their own. Sam, although somewhat reluctantly, steps into his role as Beck's replacement as the wolves begin to emerged from the woods as humans again. For her part, Grace takes a stand against her parents, who, now that they see Sam as a more permanent fixture in Grace's life, decide to actually attempt something like parenting. In Grace's opinion (and I agree), it's too little, too late- you can't only decide to be a parent when it suits you, imposing new rules and then leaving, so I was ecstatic to see Grace stand up for herself and her relationship with Sam.

In the end, great second book in this series- I think that it will serves as a great bridge between Shiver, where everything was all new, and the third book, Forever, where we will hopefully see Sam and Grace find a way to their happily ever after. Of course the biggest issue with reading Linger as an ARC is that I now have to wait longer for the next book, Forever, but that is totally okay!

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For anyone following the BOTM stuff, Linger is on for July, and in the mean time, go check out Stiefvater's website which is chock full of awesomness :)