Matched by Ally Condie

Cassia lives under the rules of the Society.  On the day of her 17th birthday Cassia attends her Matching Banquet, where she will find out who her future husband is, the man she will spend her life with until they both turn 80 and attend their Final Banquets.  Everything is orderly and planned, watched over by the Officials who make sure that everyone lives the life they are supposed to live.  But there is something unusual about Cassia's Matching, when she looks at the information about her future husband she doesn't find the face of her Match from the Banquet, instead she sees the face of someone else, someone that she already knows.  Keeping the fact a secret from everyone but her Grandfather, Cassia finds herself wondering what is happening, despite the reassurances from the Officials.

Cassia lives in a highly controlled world, where the Officials make all the decisions, right down to the food that you eat each day.  Everyone is split into compartments, essentially keeping everyone dependent on the Society for their food and other resources.  It is a perfect world that seems as though it caters to everything that you could ever need, but under the surface there is something rotten, something that eats away at the citizens and keeps them imprisoned in a perfect cage.  As Cassia spends more time with Ky, the face she sees instead of her Match Xander, the more she comes to see that things aren't quite right.

This was an absorbing read, one that kept me turning the pages waiting for the next revelation, the next discovery of what is going on.  The Society seems so wonderful, but it was kind of creepy how deep the hold of Society was on the people, and how easily it would be to conform and confine people into a society like that of Cassia and her Society by telling people it is for their own good, that to protect the planet and the environment that they have to conform and do what they are told.  This is tempered somewhat by the gentle romance that develops throughout the story.  I have to confess to a slight disappointment with the end though - it seemed like it was building to something and then just left hanging.  This is apparently the first book in a trilogy so some of that disappointment may fade after reading the next book in the series.

If you liked this book then try:

• The declaration by Gemma Malley
• Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
• The hunger games by Suzanne Collins
• The knife of never letting go by Patrick Ness

Reviewed by Brilla