Matched by Ally Condie (audiobook)

Title: Matched

Author: Ally Condie
Read by: Kate Simses
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Length: 8 CDs (unabridged)
Source: Kewaunee Public Library

In the future, the world has been perfectly engineered to end all violence and prolong life and happiness. Everything is rigidly controlled by the Society from the food that is eaten to the spouse chosen for each individual. Cassia has chosen to be “matched” with the perfect spouse chosen for her rather than to remain single. She is more than a little surprised at the match banquet to discover that she has been matched with her childhood friend, the handsome Xander. Cassia has always trusted the Society, but the morning after the match when she goes to view her match’s data card, Ky Markham’s face flash up rather than Xander’s. Ky also goes to school with Cassia. A Society official tells Cassia that is was a mistake by the society, but as Cassia’s dying grandfather implores her, Cassia starts to wonder.

Is the Society always right? Can you wonder about a different future than the one plotted by the society?

Matched has been on the top of my “to-read” list for the past year. I was lucky enough to be able to review the second novel in the series (Crossed) and decided I better listen to book one, Matched, first. I really enjoyed listening to this novel. Reader Kate Simses has a voice that sounds like a teenage girl and it very much sounded to me as if Cassia was narrating her life story to me.

Matched is a young adult dystopian novel in the same vein as The Hunger Games. While The Hunger Games focused on the action of the games, Matched focuses more on love and the love triangle of Cassia, Ky, and Xander. I enjoyed the love story and think that it would appeal to my FLICKS Book and Movie Club members. The action picks up in Crossed.

As I listened to Matched, I was reminded a lot of 1984 by George Orwell. The novel even referenced a particular scene at the end of 1984 in a conversation between Ky and Cassia where they promise never to break under torture and give each other up. Like 1984, the repressive society tells the citizens that there is an endless nameless war that they are winning on the fringes of society. The people are treated as sheep or cogs in the society machine that are always monitored and watched. They must fulfill their role in the society, or the society gets rid of the malfunctioning piece.

Overall, I really enjoyed Matched. It was a great start to a new series and definitely has me interested. I enjoyed the love story and young adult reimagining of 1984.

Matched is my fourteenth item for The Audiobook Challenge 2011.