The "Matched" Trilogy is a set of 3 fictional books about a girl named Cassia, who lives in a dystopian society in Earth's future. Dystopian is a new word to me, but I think it comes from "dysfunctional utopian". Her society seems perfect at first, but as the layers are peeled back, we see many, many problems.
Let me say, first off, that I usually dislike modern teen fiction. Anything to do with school bullying and angst, unhealthy romance, or vampires leaves me cold. Of course, many books are not like that but... in general I don't like teen books.
The Matched books were an exception. I loved the first book, liked the second, loved the third. There are some caveats that I'll mention, but in general I was very impressed.
Ok, I don't want to give away a lot, but let me set up the premise of Matched, the first book.
Cassia is 17. And in her culture, run by "The Society", 17 year olds are "Matched" to their future mates. Not all choose to marry and don't have to, but those who choose to marry can't decide on who TO marry. The Society collects information throughout the lives of all its people (including their dreams), feeds it into computers, and then "Sorters" (specially trained people) Match people together.
The culture has 20 million people in it, so the odds of personally knowing your Match are infinitesmal. On the night of the Match Banquet, Cassia and her parents go to a special hall and expect to see Cassia's match on a big screen. There are Match Banquets all over the Society at that particular time. She and he will say hello, each person in the Match will receive information about the other, and the courtship will continue with special regulations for 4 years, followed by marriage. Childbearing is not allowed until age 25, and no one can have a child past 30. All of this is to ensure (as much as possible) that children are healthy and smart and all that jazz.
Cassia is very nervous and excited. When she stands up, the screen stays dark. This means, to her astonishment as well as everyone else's, that her Match is there her own Hall. This is a very rare event.
Even more amazing, her Match is announced as Xander, her very best friend from childhood. Cassia, Xander, and their respective parents are delighted. It seems like a dream come true for all of them.
A couple of days later, Cassia inserts Xander's information card into her computer. She isn't expecting to learn anything exciting as she has known Xander all his life, but she knows it is expected. Then, the unthinkable happens. Xander's face comes up, with an announcement that he is her Match. But a few seconds, later a SECOND boy's face comes up, and the computer again announces that HE is her match. She knows the second boy as well, a boy named Ky.
The addition of Ky to her data card bewilders Cassia. She is told shortly after by an "Official" that it was a mistake and that Ky is an "Aberration" -- his parents did something wrong and Ky is therefore not able to be Matched. He is an outcast in many ways. She is told that Xander IS her match.
But the mistake starts Cassia thinking. And that starts a whole series of events in her life and the lives of those around her...
There is a whole lot more and I won't say much else about the plot. A few points about the books.
Pros:
1. The biggest "pro" in my mind is that Condie does an AMAZING job of creating this weird society without blatantly pointing out how weird it is. Cassia has grown up in The Society, and she accepts the way things are for 17 years. There are many, many oddities -- like Matching, like the fact that everyone dies on his or her 80th birthday (that isn't natural, but she doesn't know it right away), like the fact that almost all poetry and art has been destroyed for "the good of the people." Fairly often, Condie introduces some bizarre concept and just references it casually. It sometimes took me half a book to really figure out how some weird thing was working.
I particularly like this because I often think about how people as a culture WILL accept bizarre things if they are used to it. The Society, as I mentioned before, is very restrictive about childbearing. People can only have 2 kids (as far as I could tell) and only when the woman is in her mid-20's. For us in America, that seems an appalling violation of personal freedom. But of course, China is currently even MORE restrictive, only allowing ONE child per couple. I know people from China from graduate school and from work, and it is interesting to me that they'll say, "Well, of course we could only have one child." To me, that is outrageous. But in the fictional Society, and in real China, it is largely accepted as normal.
2. The books are interesting. The plots are interesting. I thought the second one dragged just a bit, but all in all I thoroughly enjoyed what happened.
3. Cassia grows a lot. She thinks through freedom and decisions and whether she wants to be safe and comfortable, or she wants to be able to think and make her own choices. Those are good things to ponder. She makes choices that mean giving up her comfortable life to help those she loves. At more than one point, she decides that the good of her society is more important than being with the man she loves.
4. The prose is excellent. The poetry is interesting. There is quite a bit of poetry, and Cassia and Ky (yes, they do fall in love) connect through poetry and writing.
5. Cassia and Ky and Xander all have loving parents (in Ky's case, his biological parents are dead and his parents adopted him). That isn't that common in teen books and I loved that all the parents involved want what is best for their children. The parents have to make hard choices, difficult choices, to give their children both protection and freedom.
Cons:
1. One odd thing about the stories is that NO one worships anything. The Society is an atheistic culture, but Cassia comes across a couple of other groups of people and no one worships the Lord, or idols, or anything. That seems very unrealistic. Yes, there have been governments that tried to force atheism but it never works very long. God has put "eternity in the hearts of man." It didn't bother me a lot in the sense that the whole Society is a mess, but it seemed strange. There are a few references to angels (in art) but no one believes in them.
2. The biggest con of all is that the romance between Cassia and Ky makes me nervous at times. To be clear, there is no sex. There is not even a extremely inappropriate physical touching (for an unmarried couple.) But there is a lot of physical attraction between them, and in a couple of places there are references to them kissing repeatedly.
If I were asked, I would strongly discourage 2 in love, hormonal teenagers from engaging in a lot of kissing. God has wired us for passion when we are married, and I'm a big believer in keeping the boundaries up before marriage to avoid choices that will lead to regret. Cassia and Ky are pretty busy when they are together (usually) -- avoiding floods and protecting people around them so they don't have a lot of time to jump in bed, and they don't. But I just felt like their actions were unwise.
Cassia seems downright obsessed with Ky at times, and that makes me uncomfortable too. One VERY interesting thing, and I believe this is a positive, is that Cassia learns that she doesn't understand Ky completely. She believes certain things about him, all positive, that aren't true. She realizes eventually that Ky, while a caring, loving person, has some serious personal trauma. Actually, the poor guy could use some godly psychotherapy, but he never gets it :-).
All in all, though, I really like the trilogy. I wouldn't hand it over to a young reader but I am letting our 2 big girls read them.
