Nick's thoughts on Matched

Ivy recently did a book review of Matched. I have read Matched too, so I decided to post some of my thoughts.

1. The society

The dystopian society that Cassia and the other characters live in is called The Society. Apart from the lame name, it's pretty complex. It heavily incorporates advanced technology. A common theme is that machines are good for some things, but people are good for others. Paper is barely used, and what is used falls apart after a few days. Most information is stored in machines, but they are not used for information processing. The people who instead do that job are called sorters. Sorters have a very high place in the Society, and the best job a sorter can have is sorting the Matching Ceremony. The Matching is the Society's practice of pairing two young adults together to become spouses through a sorting. This, obviously, is one of the big things that make this a dystopia, with the other being that they have a hundred pieces of each kind of art. That's it. 100. No one knows how to write, draw, paint, or play instruments, so no one can make more art. There's a bunch of other personal freedoms taken away in the Society, but that's the gist of it. I can barely imagine living in a world where there were only a hundred books to read…

2. The love triangle

A love triangle is a very complicated thing, hard for an author to get right. The "options" have to both be likeable and relatable, it can't be over too fast, it can't get too boring, and on and on. But the most important thing is that the reader has to genuinely think that there is an near-equal chance that each couple ends up together. You can't basically give it away in the first chapter or you've got no suspense! Matched does a good job of getting all of these points (something I can't say about its sequels Crossed and Reached), but it doesn't go beyond that, you know? It just needs a little extra oomph and it would be fantastic.

3. The combination of the above two

This is where the book gets a little off. There is simply not enough time to delve into either aspect, so they both end up suffering a little. The book just needed to be longer!!

To sum it up, I liked Matched. It's a solid book, it hits all the right notes, and it definitely gets you excited for the sequels. It would just be so much better if it was longer.

I originally did not set out for this to become a full review, but it kinda did, so I'll give it a final score anyway.

Final score: 8.8 out of 10

If you liked this book, I strongly recommend reading The Selection by Kiera Cass. It is one of my favorite series in the history of ever. It's a lot like this (only better!!). Just go out and get this book!!

– Nick