Matched by Ally Condie

Target Audience: Teens/Young Adults
Genre: Romance/Dystopia

I'm writing this on New Years Eve as my last review of 2010 (yeah!) and i have to admit I couldn't have picked a better book to go out with a bang on.
Matched is original, meaningful, moving, suspenseful and romantic, and it stands out brilliantly from all the other dystopia YA books.

Set far into the future, the world has been split into provinces and society makes all the decisions for us. Perhaps the most disturbing feature in this society is that they also decide who each individual will be partnered and married to, how many kids they will have, when they will die, the professions they work in and even the clothes they wear.
Obviously the most central part of this novel revolves around the Matching process, in which Cassia is matched with her best friend Xander.  Now this is all fine until she looks at the microcard with the data on her match and it flashes the face of another boy instead of Xander.  This particular person is Ky Markham and what follows is a journey of love, rebellion and discovery that is truly inspiring.

As well as the romance, there is a lot of world building and i found the idea of Cassia's world believable in the sense that politicians would stop at nothing to gain control of the world and to make all the major decisions in life.  I was also stunned by the cruelty of some of the people in this world, as they seemed to like to play games with those under there control, to the point where it could ruin lives.

The character building was brilliant and i was amazed by the complex relationships that were created and described throughout. My favourite characters by far were Cassia, Ky and Cassia's grandfather. The latter of which because of the inspiration he gave to Cassia through the only medium he could; poetry.
The words: "Do not go gentle into that dark night" still echo in my head, and there meaning even more so. Words of strength, rebellion and making your own choices by fighting for what you believe in, even if the choice is a difficult one.

It's hard to go on about this book too much without giving away any of the main plot lines, so your going to have to just take me at my word and believe me when i say this is an amazing book and you should give it a go!