Matched

suzannafromkentucky - Matched is about a sixteen year old girl named Cassia Reyes whose life is planned out with her having very minimal choices that she will make herself-such as who she will marry, where she will work, and when she will die. In the society that Cassia lives in, they find out who they will marry during the Matching Ceremony, when they are sixteen. The two people Matched together soon meet, then spend the next few years memorizing things about the other, because they are not from the same city. In fact, the first time they see their future spouse is up on a screen during their Matching Ceremony. When she realizes that the boy she is Matched with is from her town, Mapletree Borough, Cassia is overwhelmed with feelings. She is unsure if she wants to be married to someone that she has probably met before, even though they are matched based on their similarities, such as favorite color, favorite recreational activity, and favorite leisure activity. When she is picked to be Matched with her best friend, Xander, Cassia becomes immensely excited. When they turn twenty-one, they will be married! But when she looks at a picture of him on the Matching screen before bed, she sees Xander's face, then the face of a complete stranger…and then a blank screen. When Cassia is faced between the one she knows, who is perfect with her, and the other boy on the screen, who she has never met, but longs for, she is faced with a choice unknown to any other in her society-between perfection and passion.

Starred review from October 4, 2010
All her life, Cassia has never had a choice. The Society dictates everything: when and how to play, where to work, where to live, what to eat and wear, when to die, and most importantly to Cassia as she turns 17, who to marry. When she is Matched with her best friend Xander, things couldn't be more perfect. But why did her neighbor Ky's face show up on her match disk as well? She's told it was an error, but something once noticed clamors for attention, and now Cassia can't look away. Ky has many secrets, but the most stunning to Cassia is something she never suspected still existed: creativity. As they fall in love, Cassia's eyes are opened to the truth of the Society, and she knows she can no longer blindly follow its dictates. But the Society isn't through with them, and things get much, much uglier. Condie's enthralling and twisty dystopian plot is well served by her intriguing characters and fine writing. While the ending is unresolved (the book is first in a trilogy), Cassia's metamorphosis is gripping and satisfying. Ages 14–up.