Matched

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows he is her ideal mate... until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow. 

-- bn.com

Matched is not my favorite book. Not by a long shot. For all the hype that came before it, I thought that it came off rather flat. The story was very predictable. No odd twists came along; nothing special was added. Predictable isn't necessarily bad, but you have to have some appeal somewhere. 

Yes, there was some appeal in the hook. I loved the beginning of it at least. It gives off real emotions and excitement. Slowly as you read on though, it kind of loses this appeal. Halfway through the book it was almost dead. There are several reasons for this:

--Ky is a very flat and unlovable character. Yes, I know he has that spark because he appeared on the screen, but why does Cassia love him? I have no idea. Xander seemed like a much nicer guy- I liked him much more just because he was introduced as the hot best friend that you can spend the rest of your life with. There are only so many times you can gush about Ky's eyes.

--I felt like I've already read this book. I've said that there were no plot twists, but with all the dystopian I've read, it was the same. If you take The Giver and add a bit of romance, you will get some eerily similar books. This was a big reason, I felt, becasue there are only so many times a plot can be rewritten and still have something left in it. 

I would give this book 22 out of 51 tacos for the above reasons, but it still gets some because I know that I'll be reading the sequel, if just to see what happens. That has to mean that Matched manipulated my conscience somehow to like just a little bit of it, right?

Have you read Matched? Did you like it, or were you like me and not like it so much?