Matched

Title: Matched
Series: Matched (1)
Author: Ally Condie
Publisher: Dutton, a member of Penguin Group USA (2010)
Genre: young adult, science fiction, dystopia, romance
Trailer: see it on youtube
Pages: 366

Description (from cover)
In the Society, Officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die.

Cassia has always trusted their choices. It's hardly an price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one...until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible chocies: between Xander and Ky, between the  only life she's known and a path no one else has ever dared follow--between perfection and passion.

Reaction
I'm not a fan of the jacket discription, because it makes the story sound torid and dramatic. And there is a fair amount of drama going on, but it's not loud and in your face. For the most part, this is a quiet story. Life in the Society is peaceful and happy, so it takes a number of small things to propel Cassia to question their power over her.

The romance is also understated, which I appreciated. This is one of those books where I can actually stand the love triangle. Cassia has a clear connection to both Ky and Xander, and you really can understand that Cassia isn't just choosing between two love-interests. She's essentially deciding whether she will live the way the Society requires, or if she will fight against it. Her struggle with these two relationships acts as a catalyst for her journey. And by keeping the melodrama low, the story feels all the more real.

It was easy to identify with Cassia's dilemma, because her world did feel, in many ways, perfect. A lot of the struggles in life had been eliminated. But at the same time,  you get the feeling throughout the book that things are not as calm as they seem. This book may have been full of small, impactful moments, but I can tell it's building towards something bigger.

Cassia makes for a great heroine, because while she's self-assured and intelligent, she doesn't need to physically kick ass to be an awesome, strong woman. Unlike Katsa (Graceling) and Katniss (The Hunger Games), who are both very awesome in their own right, Cassia's struggles don't involve physical prowess. It doesn't make her a superior heroine, but it's nice to see another way to be.

Design
The cover is gorgeous, and actually really appropriate for the story. It establishes exactly the right mood for the book. The cover was probably responsible for me buying the book mere days after it came out.

The interior is also lovely, but I have one complaint. The use of cursive writing is an important symbol in the story, and I would have liked the designer to use a more true-cursive font for those moments, instead of just a nice italic. It was pretty, but it didn't achieve that connected, curvy affect that's described.

Appeal
Matched reminded me a lot of  and George Orwell's 1984, in the best ways.  And like some contemporary dystopia hits, such as Scott Westerfeld's Uglies and Suzanne Collin's The Hunger Games, Matched leaves you eager for more. However, in both those series, I was never as happy with the outcome as I was with the set-up. I hope Matched breaks that pattern.

Final Rating

5/5, definitely deserving of all the hype; can't wait for the sequel!

The Hunger Games

Title: The Hunger Games
Series: The Hunger Games (1)
Author: Suzanne Collins
Publisher: Scholastic Press (2008)
Genre: young adult, science fiction, dystopia, futuristic, action, adventure, survival
Pages: 374

Description
In the ruins of a place known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capital surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capital is hard and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteeen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before--and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love. (from cover)

Reaction
Before I jump into full review-mode, one quick question for the jacket copy above: how is she "living alone" if she lives with her mother and younger sister? Seriously, what?

Actually it's always interesting to see what details they put on the cover of a book. Notice there is absolutely no mention of a love triangle, even though I know fans jumped all over it, even in just the first book. But my guess is they wanted the description on the cover to be as boy-friendly as possible, which it definitely is. An overly gushy romance, this book it's not.

I first fell in love with this book because, for about the first twenty pages, I didn't realize Katniss was a girl. Sure, there were subtle hints (her mild flirtation with guy-pal Gale), but it's in first person, and it took awhile for it to actually be expressly stated. Also, I was working under a sexist assumption. A teenager out in the woods hunting to feed a hungry family? Naturally, a boy. I was so happy to be wrong.

Katniss is really a great character. She's strong, but she has her limitations, and while she's smart, there are a lot of things about herself and her world which she simply can't see. The supporting characters are also awesome.

Of course, the real power of these books is how possible they feel. The Hunger Games make for a believable reality tv show. Just let our world get a tad more corrupt here and there, and I could see it happening. It hearkens back to the days of the gladiators. Humans are definitely capable of such lows in the name of entertainment and power.

And man is this a fast read. Even the second time through, knowing what was coming, I still finished it in almost a day. It's very compelling, and has great  pacing. It did take a bit to get into though. I was intrigued, but not really invested for a good few chapters. But once she's headed to the Games, it's like a marathon from there.

I will say this though: on my second read through, I caught a lot of copy-editing mistakes. Missed commas, convoluted sentences, and the like. More than just stylistic choices. This surprised me, because the book seems so high-production.

Design
I'm not overly impressed with the cover, but they branded the series well. The interior is nice though, especially the Part breaks, which have a nice graphic element to them.

Final Rating

5/5, very compelling, but not for the faint of heart.

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Look, goodies! For good measure, here's a video-audition for the announced movied adaptation of The Hunger Games. It's some unknown, but clearly talented, actors taking a stab at the roles.

SPOILERS ALERT (but a quite awesome video)

Incarceron

Title: Incarceron
Series: Incarceron (1)
Author: Catherine Fisher
Publisher: Dial Books, an imprint of Penguin Group (2010)
Genre: young adult, dystopian, futuristic, fantasy/sci fi
Pages: 442

Description
Incarceron is a prison so vast that it contains not only cells, but also metal forests, dilapidated cities, and vast wilderness. Finn, a seventeen-year-old prisoner, has no memory of his childhood and is sure that he came from Outside Incarceron. Very few prisoners believe that there is an Outside, however, which makes escape seem impossible.

And then Finn finds a crystal key that allows him to communicate with a girl named Claudia. She claims to live Outside—she is the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, and doomed to an arranged marriage. Finn is determined to escape the prison and Claudia believes she can help him. But they don’t realize that there is more to Incarceron than meets the eye, and escape will take their greatest courage and cost more than they know. Because Incarceron is alive. (from cover)

In Mine:
I was really intrigued by this book. So intrigued, in fact, that I had to check it out from the library twice. I originally got it in a giant batch of books for my family trip to Montana, and it was one of the only books I didn't finish. It was in too high of demand for me to just renew it, so I had to return it, re-request it, and pick it up again, before I could finally finish it.

Overall, I liked it. The world is fascinating; the characters slightly less so. I didn't dislike any of them, but I didn't really get attached. In fact, until the very end, I wasn't planning to read beyond this first book. But a side character snuck up and stole my interest, so I'll probably be reading Sapphique when it comes out (hopefully on the first try this time). I see a lot of potential for this series, and the book itself is very fast-paced and suspenseful.

Design
This is a gorgeous book. The exterior is lovely, and it matches the interior so well. There are detailed, lovely-textured splash pages between each section of the book. And the cover shimmers.

Final Rating

3/5 but I'm looking forward to the sequel.

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Also check out the book trailers for Incarceron and Sapphique.