"Matched" by Ally Condie

Summary: The Society in which Cassia lives is perfect and arranges everything in its citizens' lives--from when they die (exactly on one's eightieth birthday) to whom they will be Matched with for marriage.  Cassia's excited for her Matching ceremony and thrilled when she learns she is matched with Xander, her best friend since childhood.  But when Cassia opens her dataport to see her match's picture, instead of Xander she sees a picture of Ky--another boy in the neighborhood.  Cassia finds herself drawn towards Ky, but doing so means disobeying the rules of the Society.

Musings: Matched is a book that would probably be good for teenagers who typically read contemporary YA (high school romances and friendships) and would like a generic love story with a dystopian feel.  However, for fans of the dystopian genre, Matched is dull and unoriginal.

Matched is extraordinarily similar to Uglies (though it lacks its more interesting concept) and Delirium (though Delirium at least made me feel something in the romance), and in its worldbuilding it goes no further than the most basic totalitarian government: restrictive thought, false utopia, controlled life decisions.  Cassia's a generic protagonist; she's happy and content in her controlled life until--dum dum--she sees Ky's photo and somehow goes all gaga for him.

Most of the book is Cassia agonizing over her decisions and coming to the startling realization (wait for it): that she should be able to make her own decisions! Yeah.

I skimmed through the last third so quickly that you'd think I'd have to have missed something, but now that I've finished, that doesn't appear to be the case.

Not one where I'll be picking up the sequel.