Talking About the Book "Matched" by Ally Connie

I just finished reading Matched a little while ago. I immediately had to get the next book Crossed on my iPad with my library card. Libraries are awesome, use their services and support them! K, random library support aside, you can imagine that I enjoyed this book. 

Just to give you some context, this book has been around a while, since 2011 to be exact. It was one I've always meant to read but kept choosing other titles first. I finally decided this was the year I would read it, and I'm so glad I did. 

******SPOILERS*****

The story of Matched is about a seemingly utopian society. Everyone's needs are provided, they are told what jobs they will do based on assessments of each person's likes and capabilities, and even their partners are chosen for them based on correlating data for the best possible outcome. Overall, people's lives are pretty good. 

The main character, Cassia has had a good life, good friends, and not much reason to question the system that exists. People live a long time, and aren't burdened with the need to learn copious amounts of information so they can specialize in just one particular area. 

On the day she is supposed to be shown her match for the perfect partner, she learns she already knows her match:  something virtually unheard of. Cassia's thoughts lead to questions, and she uses her exceptional analysis and sorting skills to process what she knows about her world. 

She realizes that even if she has a good life, she's not sure it is a fair life, and her actions and choices lead her from one tense situation to another. In 2011 this book would have seemed so far-fetched, but now with the loss of rights hanging in the balance for women and those of the LGBTQIA+ community, this doesn't sound impossible. 

There are some interesting points to consider in the book, and while Cassia is able to appreciate the good things from the Society, she isn't naive enough at the end to discount the unfairness of how those things are distributed. It's a good example of striving for things to be better, not necessarily throwing everything out the window because a part of it isn't good. 

I'm interested to see where this series goes, and whether they will be able to make the Society into something better, and fair to all, or if they decide that it can't be done and everything will need to be made anew. 

There are at least two other books in the series, so it'll be intriguing to see how things play out in the subsequent novels.