Carissimi

This will be a long review...lol

As I closed the very last page of this awesome finale to the Matched series I start screaming (in a happy way).

I screamed of pure joy and mixed emotions



I laughed in surprise because I finally get what the author wanted the readers to understand



I cried just for a little because I felt the emotions and pain that the characters were feeling



And I clapped for about an hour because Condie really did an excellent job at writing this finale



Well the first book, Matched, was great. But, the second book,Crossed, was not as good although i loved it the same. I was expecting action or something but instead I got some action and then just thoughts and thoughts. No!!!! I like action and thoughts, not just thoughts. You get what I mean? It had taken me two months to read Crossed and when I was about to give up the ending interested me and boom...

"I need to read REACHED." I said to myself one day when I suddenly jumped from my bed in the morning.

I ran to the library and I checked it out. I didn't want to buy something I didn't like...I had to read it from the library first. You understand what I mean? If I loved it I would buy for my own and if I didn't I would just dump it quietly in the library.

Welllllll.........



This was awesome!!!! I'm not going to say it was this AMAZING book but man what an awesome book. I gulped 512 pages in less than two days and I DO NOT regret it at all. I will definitely buy it.

I'm not going to spoil this at all because in order for you to understand everything you have to read the first two books. I'll try my best.

WHAT I LIKED:

-The writing. It was good. Very understandable and no grammar errors. I think it could have been more detailed but it was still great.

-Poems. Yes, Condie uses a lot of poems and arts related things. I love that about this book because it represents hope for the main characters. There are some very beautiful poems in this book.

-The characters. They were all amazing. Each had its own kind of personality that made them each unique. I especially loved Xander, Indie, and Lei.

-The plot. It was to rebel against the Society. I liked how it turned out.

-The reality. Even though this was set in the future it had a reality that we see today.we wish to want something, save the world, or follow someone and then get disappointed we still have to go on. We have to cling to hope and even if things don't turn out how we wanted them to turn out something good will always come out of it.

-Surprising. Some things surprised me in this book that I did not expect at all. Others were predictable but you still got kind of surprised.

-The cover. I LOVE the covers of the Matched series. Especially this one. So beautiful and unique.

-The ending.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: Some spoilers ahead

-The love triangle. Yes, I was confused because Cassia would say something like: "I know I want to be with Ky but I also love Xander." Yes we fucking get it, you LOVE Ky but you have to let Xander go at some point. Yeah, you dumped him for Ky so get over it and stop feeling bad for him. And Xander wanted Cassia but it was obvious he would be the third wheel. And Ky didn't really have an opinion. I HATE love triangles because of who you have to choose. Either way, I loved how it all turned out towards the end.

-Cassia. Yeah, she is the heroine. The one who saves the damn day. The one who solves everything. Is Condie trying to prove us that Cassia is some kind of rebel by asking too many questions when she sin't supposed to or by defending individuals that nobody seems to like? I think everyone does that. I have always found her annoying. The only reason why I kept reading? Xander and Ky and because of everyone else.



-The Rising and rebellion. Okay, so I was expecting some kind of action...hello!! You are rebelling against the Society. I was excited for that but, it turned out there was no violence. There was a plague and there were questions to be answered.



-Getting confused. So sometimes I would get confused and understand nothing. Sometimes I would get bored. But...then I would get interested again until the end.

-Cassia and Ky. I would have preferred for Cassia to stay alone for a while. And Ky be with Indie. Xander and Lei seem great together.

-Emptiness. I really liked this book. But there was just something about it that didn't really have that magic or effect a book is supposed to have. I was just sometimes annoyed.


BUT...



It's worth reading. Awesome. And even thought there were somethings I didn't really like it is enjoyable and it was worth my time. I do not regret reading this book at all. I loved the ending and I was kind of sad that the world of Cassia, Ky, and Xander was over.

And I also think that there should have been a fourth book. I mean, we got to see Cassia and Ky's love story. What about Xanders?

Anyways, you should check out this whole series and enjoy it. It is one of the best finales I have read in a long time.

Crossed, the much anticipated sequel to Matched, picks up shortly after Matched leaves off with Cassia working in the fields to try to get to Ky. She spends quite a bit of time there looking for the best opportunity to get to the outer provinces, where she believes Ky is, but is slowly losing hope of finding one. Cassia is about to be moved to another assignment when she receives a visit from Xander, her lifelong friend and actual match assigned to her by The Society. Xander is also who helped set her on her way on this journey to find Ky armed with a large stash of blue pills.

Cassia is allowed to have a supervised outing with Xander, since he's really her match, and during this outing she finds an archivist who trades with her some information about "The Pilot". This Pilot will be key throughout the whole book as it represents the leader of The Rising, the rebellion that is taking place against The Society. She finds a way to make it to the outer Provinces and goes on a personal mission to find Ky whatever it takes while taking with her a girl she met at her previous assignment, Indie.

In the meantime, Ky is dealing with the fact that he is being sent by the Society from Village to Village as a decoy in order to fool the enemy (the Rising) into thinking that there are actually villagers living there. He knows they aren't fooling anyone though because they are getting fired upon and tons of them are dying, from being fired upon and also from not having any way of defending themselves. They are sitting ducks in hostile territory. Ky had been lucky so far by staying alive and devised a plan to escape into The Carving, a mountainous territory with canyons where he believes lives a community of farmers independent from The Society.

The book focuses on Cassia and Ky's journey, to find each other first, through basically the same territory. They both find themselves in The Carving finding clues about where the other might be. When they finally do find each other, the book's focus changes on how the plan to get out of there and what their plans are for the future. Secrets are revealed, unlikely relationships are formed, and shocking revelations are found hiding in The Carving. The story is told from alternating viewpoints, from Cassia to Ky, which I really enjoyed. It was nice seeing things from Ky's perspective after reading Matched which was all from Cassia's point of view.

I cannot say, however, that I was happy with the way the book ended. I know that there is another book in the series which I am looking forward to reading, especially after the way things were left off in Crossed. It's not much of a cliffhanger but rather a disappointing decision that is made that really angered me. I felt like the characters had gone through way too much for this lapse in judgement to take place. I don't want to give too much away, but let's just say that you won't look at Cassia the same way after that.

The sequel to MATCHED, if any of you were concerned, is just as good as the original. Condie's writing is so crisp and clear that the book just flows along, and her characters continue to be vivid, real people who you root for and (even more importantly) believe in. There are no sitcom-esque misunderstandings, but people having normal, natural conversations, keeping secrets that need to be kept, revealing secrets when they think the time is right. That, I think, is the true appeal of these books. The characters are so real, their dialogue is so real, and that you can fully believe that this is our own future we are seeing, frightening and strange as it is.

I loved the stark cleanliness of the Society in MATCHED, and now in CROSSED we see the flipside: the wilds where the castoffs are struggling to survive. This change of scene keeps the storyline fresh, and introduces a whole new set of challenges: Cassia has learned that she cannot trust the Society, but can she trust the rebels, either? Now that I've seen both options, I'm very excited to find out where book three will land Cassia, Ky, and Xander. (And does Cassia really need to choose between them? C'mon, Ally, it's the future!)

Matched - Ally Condie  

What made you pick-up the book?
> I actually watched a book trailer in Youtube (the link to that vid was way down there somewhere) so and yeah I got intrigued by that video and then I go to goodreads and read reviews about it. I was a bit shock about the mix reviews, some was positive and some was negative. So because of it I think I should read it so I have to know for myself if it's good or not.

What are your expectations before reading it?
> I actually have lower expectations since I've read a couple of negative reviews and they said it was very similar to The Giver by Lois Lowry. Honestly I didn't like The Giver (I just gave it two stars) and at first I thought that maybe I wouldn't like the book but at least I'd love to give utopia a second try.

What do you love about the book?
>Okay there are many things I love about this book:

a. Writing Style- it was prose with a mix of poetry (somewhat lyrical) so if you adoreMaggie Stiefvater's or Carrie Ryan's style of writing you probably would love Ally Condie's style as well.

b. Cassia (the heroine)- actually the heroine was not annoying and she has a strong voice. To be more specific, her character at first was a weak one and as the story progresses, her way of thinking changes and it got deeper and deeper. She actually got a good character development and she has a lot of epiphanies about her so-called perfect society and that's what I love about her.

Everything around her seems perfect when you look at it superficially but when you try to analyze it deeper there society was perfect but they have no choices, no freedom at all, they're like society's puppets.

c. The love story- at first the love story was idk just a love story, but it has actually implies idk what you call that uhhhm symbolism or whatever...so yeah this is what I just think about it:

Xander vs Ky

or this could mean (own interpretation folks)

Conformity vs. Rebellion

Known vs. Unknown

Perfection vs. Imperfection

Love that was dictated by Society vs. Love that was dictated by oneself

d. Ky and Cassia's relationship- it builds up (it actually builds up *sorry for the repetition folks*). So yeah I just wanna rant those other books wherein yeah the boy meets girl or rather the girl meets boy and then baaaaaaam for 5 seconds they freaking love each other (like they're soulmates or idk destined for each other *gags*). Come on that was so unrealistic when authors do that, it seems they're too lazy to write the part of you know "getting-to-know-each-other" part of a relationship *coughs*. So yeah :) that was what I like about this book, I mean yeah whatever idk how to explains it but they actually have that "getting-to-know-each-other" thingy.

And idk when I was reading this book I felt like I'm not reading it (if you know what I mean), I felt like I was existing inside the book. Like I was Cassia and I felt all her emotions and I empathize with her problems and I can see her world right into my eyes.

So yeah I just felt that while I was reading this, I would definitely pick every choices that Cassia made. I know that in my hearts of heart I would fall in love with Ky even though it was forbidden, even though my Society says that Xander was the one I was suppose to marry. I mean there's just something about Ky that pulls you into him even if it was dangerous. Ky was mysterious and his story was what urge me to know more about him (just like Cassia). Is it that wonderful when you actually was curious to know more about a person because of his/her imperfection and rather of his/her perfection?

What do you hate about the book?
a. It was unoriginal.
> Actually there's something about this book that screams out Rip-off and Plagiarism *ever read The Giver and Hunger Games?*. Yeah but I think since this book was in the genre of utopia/dystopia, maybe there were just a few things/elements that will be always similar like:

-The Political Intrigue
-Human vs. Society
-Rebellion
-"The Government/Society Lied" thingy or "Your whole life was a lie" thingy
-the protagonist will always have moments of "Epiphany" on the book
-Social Manipulation sort of stuff
-Philosophical and Political morals/ideas that would be shove into your throat as the storyline progresses

b. I felt that the book was idk the term uhhhhm "bridge" or "exposition/ introduction" for the other books. I mean in this book there are hints that some people outside the province were actually rebelling and there's like a war blah blah blah. But in this book the rebellion was not yet elaborated so I think that will be for the next books to come.

c. I love it but the ending, I felt that it wasn't an ending at all. Idk there are so many questions that are left hanging and I felt that to be able to really judge this book you need to read the whole series and how things will be played out in the end. So yeah I need the next book pretty fast!

What are other books you want to recommend with the same genre?
Okay so I just list them here, I'll divide dystopia and utopia and will sort of rank them out:

Dystopia:
1. (5stars) (5stars) (both 1 star and 5stars)
2. (5stars) (2stars)
3. (5stars)
4. (4stars) (2stars)

Utopia:
1. (5stars)
2. (2stars)
3. (2stars)

Note:

Weeeeee! I just finished Matched and it was AMAZING. I want more!!!
I love Ky Markham btw he kinda reminds me of someone *daydream for a moment*

*coughs*the guy I fallen in love with in High School*coughs*

(Eeeeeeeeeeek, *violently shoves someone*)

Yeah and I just want to share a conversation with my classmate here:

Joyzi: Hey I recommend you to read the Hunger Games it was so amazing blah blah blah and I read it like in one sitting cuz I can't put it down and Peeta was so sweet and everything blah blah blah, best book ever blah blah

Friend: ah okay :)

After a few days...

Joyzi: Hey have you finished the Hunger Games?

Friend: No I don't want to read it.

Joyzi: Why?

Friend: I kinda go to wikipedia and I found out it was a violent book, children killing children kinda.

Joyzi: Yeah it was pretty violent. Why? Don't you wanna read something that has gore on it?

Friend: Sorry friend but violence is not my cuppa.

(So yeah I think I just recommend Matched by Ally Condie to my friend, because this book has zero violence but has an amazing Dystopia theme *it was quite similar to the Giver but this one has romance and the writing was breathtakingly beautiful*)

Yeah, idk what else to say, I will have an in depth review of the book on Sunday.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaeNWL...
(very nice book trailer here)