Book Review : Matched Trilogy Ally Condie

THINKING OF READING THE MATCHED SERIES BY ALLY CONDIE 08/11/2013 0 Comments   By Amanda Perry Are you thinking about reading theMatched series, because I recently did. I wanted to review the books as a series as opposed to individually because I honestly feel that none of the books can stand on their own without the others, with the exception of maybe the first one. The cover art on all three books was magnificent and I feel like that deserves an honorable mention. Matched was a lot like Lauren Oliver’s Delirium. In fact the two stories were so similar it made me feel Matched lacked originality… until I looked it up and found that Matched was actually written before Delirium! The first book in the series was pretty good. The story was enjoyable and easy to read. The world building was efficient enough that I had no problem visualizing the story at any point. There were even two different points in the story where I actually cried! Big, fat, sappy tears! The characters themselves were a bit underdeveloped. The relationships between Cassia (our main character) and Xander( one of our supporting characters) did not play out quite like I believe they would have in real life, and Cassia's struggle to decide which of the two boys was the one for her was actually a bit nauseating. I mean at one point in the story she was so sure this was the love of her life and then she would turn around and doubt herself wondering if she was just falling for the bad boy because that’s what was against the rules. Come on Cassia, get it together would ya!! Not to mention how she felt zero guilt at all for her betraying someone she had known her WHOLE life. That doesn’t happen in real life. On the plus side, I felt like Ky was very realistic and written beautifully. His personality was spot on and he stays true to himself through all three books. Bram was also very fun to read about. I just wish he had a bigger part in the rest of the series. I feel like he was Cassia's rock; the thing that kept her feet tethered to the ground, which she desperately needs. On to Crossed... This may have been my favorite of all three books, though the plot was extremely frustrating. I feel like the rising is just a bunch of darn bologna! The rebellion makes NO sense at all. In this book the rebellion behaves exactly like the society they claim to be against. I mean you'd think with such a strict society, people would be opposing this crazy government so they could be free, but instead it's the same with only a few modifications to the rules. I found it a bit absurd. Why bother rebelling at all if you only want to change a handful of things? Cassie and Ky should have just went to live with the farmers and said screw it all.  End series there. The travels of Indie and Cassia were very entertaining. Ky going off and meeting Vick and Eli was probably the best part of the book. I really believe that this author writes her secondary characters so much better than her main characters.                                                             Finally Reached. This was by far the worst of the three. The whole thing seemed to be an almost modern version of Fahrenheit 451…but not nearly as good.  I mean it's bad enough that our three main characters have traveled across the world to reunite and they all end up with the crock of bologna Rebellion, but now guess what? They’re being split up…again! Oh and there’s a plague. It’s almost as if the author was grasping at straws looking for a way to force the story to come together. There was a particular plot twist where the pilot accuses our main characters of some shady things, which I found surprising in a very good way, but that was one of the very few positive things I have to say about this installment. We learn that the rebellion is even more like the Society than I had previously believed (groan.) Cassia regained the red garden memory and that was a little cool.  Honestly though I don’t understand all the hype about this series. There are so many things that I felt were left unanswered. I mean why was Cassia immune to the plague but not the red pill? How on earth would Cassia's mom know what flower would be the one they needed?  Coincidences like that simply don’t happen. The whole thing was too unrealistic. The key to a dystopian story is to make it seem plausible. We, as readers, want to believe that the world could end up this way and we want to believe in those two people who defy the “Man” so to speak. This was just too far-fetched in my opinion. I do believe the concept over all was really good and the story could have been amazing had the author taken a bit more time to work out some of the kinks. What about you guys? Have you read this series? Did you love it or hate it? I’d love to hear your thoughts!