Matched (2010) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters edit see section history

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• Cassia Maria Reyes: A 17-year-old girl who had one very, very lucky match banquet. Her banquet was on the same day as her birthday, she is matched to her lifelong friend, and she was the only girl at the banquet in the light green silky dress. She loves her family and would do nothing to place them in danger, but when an error occurs with her Matching ceremony microchip, she doesn't know what to do or who to trust. Her feelings toward a certain boy whom she saw flash before her on the port are causing major problems. Also, when her grandfather dies, he leaves her an artifact and she is forced to make a very difficult decision that will change her life forever.
• Xander Thomas Carrow: Cassia's best friend since First School, and he is now HER match! He likes swimming and games, especially Check and his favorite color is red. He loves Cassia unconditionally, and he always will, no matter what.
• Ky Markham: A boy in Cassia's neighborhood who used to live on the Outer Provinces, nephew of the Markhams and adopted son. He works at the nutrition disposal office. He is in Cassia's hiking class, and she recently found out through extenuating circumstances that he is an aberration, and he will never get a Match.
• Grandfather: Cassia's grandfather is one of her closest friends. He dies at the beginning of the book after reaching 80 years old, the death age in the Society.
• Abran Reyes: Cassia and Bram's father, a sorter and an Official for the Society. He sorts out artifacts for the community. His project (now) is to dig up the old library and incinerate any books the Society deems unnecessary.
• Bram Reyes: Cassia's little brother. Typical younger brother, troublemaker. His artifact is Grandfather's watch, which is really important to him. Tends to be late. Stands up for what he thinks is right. Has hope when there is virtually nothing to hope for.
• Molly Reyes: Cassia's mother. Works in the Arboretum (flower and nature center) . Molly is originally from the Farmlands.
• Em: One of the local girls who is best girlfriends with Cassia. Also, she is a friend to Xander and Ky. And loves her Match.
• Official Standler: The Official who Cassia talks to about her Microcard.
• Livy: Cassia's friend, almost as good a hiker as Cassia herself. She has a crush on Ky.
• Aida Markham: Ky's aunt and adopted mother, Ky's real mom's sister, who lost her own son.
• Patrick Markham: Ky's uncle and adopted father, Ky's real mother's brother-in-law, who lost his son.
• Piper: Cassia's friend.

Quotes edit see section history

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• “I stand up, letting go of my mother's hand, and turn toward the screen. I feel my hear pounding and I am tempted to twist my hands the way Lea did, but I hold perfectly still with my chin up and my eyes on the screen. I watch and wait, determined that the girl my Match will see on the screen in this City Hall somewhere out there in Society will be poised and calm and lovely, the very best image of Cassia Maria Reyes that I can present.”

  Narrator

• “That's how I know they are dreams. Because the simple and plain and everyday things are the ones that we can never have.”

  Cassia Maria Reyes

• “Each word I write brings me closer to finding the right ones.”

  Cassia Maria Reyes

• “When it rains I remember.”

  Ky Markham

• “Every minute you spend with someone gives them a part of your life and takes part of theirs.”

  Cassia Maria Reyes

• “He can play all of their games, including the one in front of him that he just lost. He knows exactly how to play, and that's why he loses every time.”

  Cassia Maria Reyes

• “You can take it," Bram says, "but it will always be mine.”

  Bram Reyes

• “I think she would ask if you wondered.”

  Grandfather

• “It's hard to know which ways to be strong.”

  Cassia Maria Reyes

• “They're different, sometimes, they're different when you're different.”

  Ky Markham

• “This is the difference between us. I live to sort; he knows how to create.”

  Cassia Maria Reyes

• “Is falling in love with someone's story the same thing as falling in love with the person himself?”

  Cassia Maria Reyes

• “Do not go gentle.”

  Dylan Thomas

• “The music is soft, slow. His chest rises and falls. His lashes are black, impossibly long, the exact color of his hair. Ky is right. I will never hear this song the same way again.”

  Cassia Maria Reyes

• “There's more to say, but we are learning how to speak.”

  Cassia Reyes

• “It's good to see you jealous once in a while.”

  Ky Markam

• “For what is the point of having something lovely if you never share it? It would be like having a poem, a beautiful wild poem that no one else has, and burning it.”

  Cassia Maria Reyes

• “I feel the faintest heat from the fire below as Ky's story burns, and I wonder if I will ever have the strength to hold onto something. Grandfather's poems. Ky's story. Or if I will always be someone who destroys.”

  Cassia Maria Reyes

• “Outside the door, Xander waits for me. It strikes me that this symbolizes what is wrong here. No one can ever really come in, and when it's time to let them, we don't know how.”

  Cassia Maria Reyes

• “We go through a forest that is complicated and full of tangles and there are no stone cairns to guide us except the ones we build ourselves.”

  Cassia Maria Reyes

• “Even if HE didn't live his story, enough of us have lived lives just like it. So it's true anyway.”

  Ky Markam

• “How can I explain to my perfectly Matched mother everything that has happened? Everything I've risked? How can I explain to her that I'd do it again? How can I tell her that I hate the system that created her life, her love, her family? That created ME?”

  Cassia Maria Reyes

• “Did Sisyphus have to do this, too? I wonder. Stop for a minute and concentrate on holding firm, on pushing the rock just enough to keep it from rolling down and crushing him, before he could even think about trying to climb again?”

  Narrator

• “It is strange how we hold on to the pieces of the past while we wait for our futures.”

  Cassia Maria Reyes

• “My heart will always fly his name.”

  Cassia Maria Reyes

• “There's a difference between knowledge and technology. Knowledge doesn't fail us.”

  Cassia Maria Reyes

• “Despite being new and different, he did not stand out for long.”

  Narrator

• “I cannot go gently now.”

  Narrator

• “"Your strong enough to go without the tablets"”

  Cassia's grandfather

• “Growing apart doesn't change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled. Chapter 20”

  Cassia (referring to her friendship with Em)

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• The Hiking Hills: Where Ky and Cassia shared deep and personal secrets that break the rules.
• Outer Provinces
• Sisyphus River: River that runs through the Outer Provinces

Organizations edit see section history

• Officials: the people who decided that you will die at 80, who your husband/wife is, where you work, and what you do. They monitor your every movement.
• The Society: The government and group in which most people live. They set the rules and mold the world of Cassia and her people.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• Aberration: Someone who has committed a crime or has a relative that committed a crime. They can never be Matched with anyone.
• Anomaly: Someone who has done a major crime and have been exiled from The Society. No one knows where they live.
• Artifacts: One of the only differences between people in this generation. They are precious remains of ancestors. Only one per person. Each must be recorded and known by the Officials. Pieces of history, like compacts or watches.
• Match Banquet: An event where young women and men learn the identities of their future companions. It is a magnificent feast for people who are 17 . You go to the Matching Banquet within the month of your 17th birthday.
• Tablets: Each citizen carries a container in which blue, green and red "tablets" are kept. These appear to be some kind of behavioral medicine. The blue tablet is to keep you alive as long as you have water, the green one for calming. The red one removes memories, excluding the few who for whatever reason do not react to it.
• Final Banquet: When a person reaches 80 in Society, they get their final banquet. They can order whatever they like to eat, and before midnight on their 80th birthday, the pass away.
• First School: The Society's word for the school for younger children. When you turn six you go to First School, and later Second School
• Second School: The Society's word for the school for older children, like a high school.

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Red: Red symbolizes a new beginning. It can also symbolize sexual impulses, danger and shame intense passion, aggression, and courage.
• Green: Green symbolizes nature, growth, hope, youth, sickness, health, spring, money , and envy.
• Blue: Blue symbolizes: youth, spirituality, truth, peace, freedom and distance. All the workers in the nutritional building wear blue clothing. Perhaps this is the sign of a "blue collar worker" or dangerous and menial laborers.
• Poems: Something Ky and Cassia like and share; symbolizes the act of creating.
• Knowledge: People fear that there will be too much knowledge in the future and that one person won't be able to master anything.
• Perfect Society: Can there ever really be a perfect society?
• Technology: The characters seem to have advanced technology, but the focus is not on technology so much as it is focused on how humans relate to their dystopian world. On page 170, Ky is shown to write on the grass using his finger. The main character says no one knows how to "write". Everyone just types.
• Love: Just because you are "matched" with someone, does not mean you will love them. YOU decide who you love.
• Rebellion: It shows how you don't need to give into the society.

Series & Lists edit see section history

Followed by Crossed.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Ally Condie (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Pennsylvania Young Readers' Choice Award (Finalist, 2012: Young Adult)
• Texas Lone Star Reading List (2011)
• Iowa High School Award 2012-2013

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PZ7.C7586 Mat 2010
• Dewey: Add the Dewey Classification.

Notes for Parents edit see section history

It teaches your child how important individuality really is. Even though romance plays a large part, it doesn't go beyond kissing.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Teens › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Science Fiction
• Books › Teens › Literature & Fiction › Love & Romance
• Books › Teens › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Fantasy

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Matched: Official Website
• Allyson Condie website: Official website of author Allyson Condie

More Books Like This edit see section history

Books That Influenced This Book edit see section history