Sunday, June 19, 2011

Matched: Love that Dystopia!

Ever wonder why dystopian books are all the rage with the YA set?  I've taken some time to ponder this, and I've come up with a few theories, which I shall share with you free of charge.
1.  Dystopia can really remind you how sweet your gravy train with biscuit wheel life truly is.
2.  Dystopia can really make you forget how your gravy train with biscuit wheels life derailed.
And there you have it, folks, the scientific method at its finest.  Seriously, though, no matter your take on dystopian literature it has truly collected quite a following.  From Lois Lowery's classic The Giver to Suzanne Collins's wildly successful Hunger Games Series, dystopian literature captures something inside of us and makes us keep those pages turning.

Matched, the first in a trilogy to come by Ally Condie, is a fairly recently published example of dystopian literature with magnetism.  Matched follows Cassia as receives her Match from the Society.  Cassia has always been the perfect daughter, perfect citizen, well, the perfect everything.  When she attends her Match Banquet, she is eager to see the photo of someone she is likely not to know who will become her husband one day.  Most often the Society matches people form different areas so they have not met.  However, Cassia is matched with her best friend, Xander.  This is amazing!  Xander is a dream boat!  He's everything she could have wanted.  But when Cassia views the information about her match there seems to have been a mistake.  Only, the Society doesn't make mistakes.

Cassia begins to question every decision she ever thought she made and wonder how much free will she really has.  She must decide between love, safety, and freedom. 

Book two of the Matched Trilogy is titled Crossed.  It is due to be released in November of 2011.  An interesting fact about Ally Condie is that she attended Brigham Young University.  That's the hallowed institution that schooled Stephenie Meyer.  They must have a heck of a creative writing department there.  Just saying.

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