Matched by Ally CondieMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
There are no real spoilers in this post, fear not!
I wouldn't call this great fiction, nor even great YA fiction, but it was definitely something I really enjoyed reading. It started off a little slow. I still don't know what any of the characters *look* like. I'm left with blank faces in my mind, which can get irritating. But I'm finding this is more and more common among YA writers - don't describe the characters, let the readers see who they want to see. Is this beneficial? I'm not sure yet.
What I am sure of is that this book really sucked me in. I started and finished it in two days (one day I was super sick and the second day I stayed up until after 11pm to finish, and I'm usually in bed by 10 because of my early mornings - yes I am an old fart). It was engrossing from start to finish, I wanted more and more and more. What was going to happen between Cassia and Ky? Was she going to kiss him in the end? Would it destroy her world? What exactly was going on between Cassia and Xander? Was Xander only in love with her because of the Matching? Was Ky? AAHHH!!! So many questions!
This was certainly YA dystopian fiction, and it was good stuff. I didn't enjoy it as much as some of the other YA dystopian fiction I've read, but I definitely liked it a heck of a lot more than Shatter Me, which made me want to throw up. (Hmm...maybe that's why I was so sick on Saturday after finishing it the day before...)
I'm looking forward to the next book, even if the reviews are less-than-stellar. I'm really glad I gave this one a shot, because the last one I read (Shatter Me) left me with a bad taste in my mouth for YA fiction - it was depressingly bad, and this was definitely an uplifting book in the sense that it brought me out of my YA funk and back to the real world of books. Yay!
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Nice to have a good review after the last one! I also like a certain sketching out of the appearance. Tall or short? Fair or dark? Doesn't need to be detailed!
ReplyDeleteI am definitely happy to have read a good book after the last major disappointment.
DeleteI like to have a face to picture, even if it's a vague shape - in this one, the only thing I know about Ky is that his eyes are blue. I know even less about Xander, and he's the first love interest! And pretty much nothing about Cassia, although I'm pretty sure she mentions what color her eyes are at some point. Brown? I think they were brown. But that's not terribly helpful! Is she short? What kind of "beautiful" is she? I hate it when authors just say "She's beautiful" or "He was so masculine." That tells me nothing!
Oh, and I'm currently reading a sci-fi YA book, which is exciting and interesting at the same time. It's really good so far, I am looking forward to writing up my thoughts at the end :)
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