Matched by Ally Condie is the story of Cassia, a girl living in a dystopian society where the government basically controls every aspect of your life from whom you'll marry (or be "matched" with) to when you'll die and everything else in between. Cassia is matched with her best friend Xander but ends up falling for her other friend Ky and she must fight to choose her own path. Conceptually this sounds interesting. However, in reality it came out pretty mediocre at best. 
 I think the biggest set back here was the lack of payoff. NOTHING HAPPENS. Matched is 366 pages of listening to a teenage girl think. There was so little action that I couldn't believe when I got to the end and nothing had happened. I thought I must have missed a chapter or something. I read all 366 pages and there was literally no action. Cassia memorized a banned poem and kisses Ky once. That was all the action we got. I'm not even exaggerating... that was it! It had so much potential to become something really complex and full of deep longing but Matched just never takes that final step into the extraordinary. It's a series of half-steps which left me with a wicked case of reader blue balls. 
 I needed more of everything. Let's start at the top of the list. 
 I wished I really saw the government being evil. What we actually saw of them wasn't super evil. I mean they were definitely controlling dicks but not the most evil I've ever seen. For example, the government in The Hunger Games was literally killing children on television. Now, that's pretty darn evil. In Matched the worst we saw was some trees getting cut down, some people being relocated, and everyone had to take a pill that makes you forget. The government does choose to kill everyone on their 80th birthday but they do it through poisoning their favorite foods and letting them hang out with their loved ones all day. I mean... that's the cuddly side of evil, right? 
 The romance in Matched was far from as passionate as it could have been. These kids were just so squeaky clean. Where was the desperate longing? I just wasn't getting any heat from any party in this love triangle. Cassia was "matched" to Xander, her best friend. Then through a "glitch" in the system her other friend Ky pops up as her match as well. Now, I get why Ky was a good love interest. He's creative, broody, and handsome. He's the trifecta. However, was it just me or was Xander actually the better choice? Xander is totally amazing. All he does is be wonderful, help Cassia, and fight for her. Obviously, Cassia isn't going to choose Xander but I kind of think she maybe should have. I know... I know. It would have defeated the whole purpose of the series but still... If I got matched with Xander I would have been perfectly happy with him. Xander is super rad and getting a bum deal here. 
 I'll admit that towards the end when Cassia finally started fighting back, I did actually like her. I mean... the biggest act of rebellion she committed was saying "No" to an official one time but at least it was something. However, it doesn't really excuse the other 95% of the book where she just wasted all her time thinking about stuff rather than doing anything. This was actually the main problem of the entire story. There's a lot of waxing poetic about how the government is bad for controlling everything but little to no action put into motion to rectify the situation. It was just a really ineffectual situation that needed to make bolder choices in its narrative. At the end, I'm not endeared to any of these characters except for Xander and since he's in for a world of heartache for the next two books in the trilogy, I won't be continuing on.