Matched by Allie Condie | Rating: ★★★☆☆

"I think of how perhaps the best way to fly would be with hands full of earth, so you always remember where you came from."

Matched takes place in a distant future and is the first of three novels. It has also been titled, by Entertainment Weekly, as the hottest young adult book since fan favorite The Hunger Games. With its promising plot and beautiful cover, I thought I’d check into purchasing the first book in the series to see what it was like.

I will say that I was pleasantly surprised with the way the stories flowed in this world and that, though compared to the likes of The Hunger Games and Divergent, its story was relatively light when compared.

There were a few similarities between each story that would certainly draw fans of other dystopian aged novels into reading it, but, the plot is all of its own — and who doesn’t love someone challenging an overbearing government, right? There is something so thrilling and captivating about taking on a higher power. Rebellion. Yet if anything, the similarities lay bigger when compared to the young adult/kids favorite The Giver. But even in all the parallels, it is important to know that this story is all its own.

Fast forward in time to a future that is controlled entirely by the government. Everything is decided for the characters in this story, nothing is fully up for an individual to decide. Who you marry and love, who you become — what your career is, even down to what you eat. This society makes sure to have everyone under their control and leaves no room for decisions.