Review: Matched
My rating: [rating=3]
To be honest, I’m not sure how to rate this book, so I gave it an average mark. Let’s say, 2.5 to 3 stars.
I kept on putting it down, then taking it again to go on reading. Regularly, I felt like I was getting bored with the story, yet I still felt like I wanted to see it unwind. I think this was due to the characters, with whom I didn’t really feel a connection. I liked discovering what happened to them (even though it was predictable enough, in a way), and they had their good sides, but they just felt a little too dull to me. Neither good nor bad, neither very interesting nor utterly boring. Some of their reactions were a little ill-timed—among other things, Cassia paying attention to Ky just because of that one glitch seemed just a little too convenient to keep my suspension of disbelief totally intact; it would’ve been different had we been introduced to Ky a little earlier on, perhaps, and had we seen the heroine already paying some attention to him as a friend (as it is, he appeared as an almost complete stranger at first, when he was actually someone she had had contact with more than just once, if only at school or games).
Other sides of the novel also left me with mixed feelings. The Society depicted in it was both detailed and not detailed enough, with certain of its aspects coming in as unexpected—unexpected as in “wait, where did that come from?”. For instance, we are told about a war, and all of sudden it’s like some people seemed to knew all along and aren’t surprised at all; only after a while, it’s also like they don’t care anymore, or have forgotten about it. Was Cassia surprised by such news, or not? I couldn’t determine. I sure would’ve liked this element to be introduced sooner for the reader’s benefit.
And yet, I kept coming back to the book, wanting to read more. So I can’t say I disliked it. I just don’t know where to stand regarding it.
Maybe I’ll read the second installment. Maybe not. Even this I don’t know yet. It’s quite weird.