YA Lit Review: 'Matched' by Ally Condie

In my effort to be in the habit of posting more regularly, I'm going to start sharing my reviews on the various young adult books that I've been reading as a part of the classroom-library/book-reading-culture-building that I'm working on with my 11th graders. We always had Silent Sustained Reading time at my last school, but here I am really trying to commit to make the SSR time sacred--no grading or email-checking for me, and in general I'm trying to make sure the kids see me reading books that they would be interested in reading (though once in a while I slip in a book just for me into the rotation!). If you're already my friend on Goodreads, then these reviews might be a re-read for you, but otherwise, hope you enjoy my humble thoughts!

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[Review embedded from Goodreads.com] 

  Matched by Ally Condie
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Matched is the first in a trilogy (trilogies are THE way to go in YA lit, apparently) set in a futuristic society where The Society (with ominous capitalization) makes decisions for all its citizens based on science and probability to maximize happiness and healthiness: what to eat, where to work, where to live, whom to marry, when to have children. If you were any sort of reader at all as a child, you'll recognize--this is basically the world from Lois Lowry's The Giver.

Add a teen love triangle and intriguing cover art, and you've got a book that appeals pretty well to YA readers (likely girls). You can tell Condie loves literature and poetry and language, which I can appreciate. The romance was a little... melodramatic for me. I probably would have appreciated it more when I was a teen. As it was, it felt a little overwrought to me (at the ripe old age of 26). Mostly this book makes me want to read The Giver again. Perhaps I should now that the series is complete.

With all that said, I wrote this in my journal midway through reading this book. Perhaps it is enough of a recommendation:

Whatever else I feel about the strengths and weaknesses of this book, I will love it forever for giving teenage girls (and me) this line: "Then, the question I asked myself was: Do I look pretty? Now the question I ask is: Do I look strong?"

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