Matched by Ally Condie

Ok, so. Matched. I've checked this out of the library at least 3 times, and every time it goes back untouched because of the love triangle plot. It's not a subtle bit of the plot, it pretty much IS the plot.  Love triangles are pretty much my least favorite plot ever. (Ok, maybe child murders or something, but I don't pick those up at ALL.)  Here's the summary of Matched from Amazon.com:

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.

See? So even though everyone on earth loved it, I kept sending it back.  Then BlogHer asked if I'd like to read it for the BlogHer book club and I decided to let them force me into finding out what happens. And what happens is that I ended up enjoying it (as usually happens).  Matched is one part The Giver (assigned careers) and a bit of Divergent (how you dress, how you live, your place in society) and a bit of Fahrenheit 451 (book burning!) If you're a fan of dystopian novels and you like a little romance you'll probably enjoy this. Especially if you live love triangles. (I admit to having a favorite here too, of course.) It's not my favorite book, but it is worth taking a look at. It is clearly the first part of a trilogy tho, so be prepared that it doesn't come to a neat tidy ending.

You can find Ally Condie online on Facebook, Twitter, and her blog.

I received this book from BlogHer in exchange for my review and participation in the BlogHer Book Club discussion of said book. All opinions are my own.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

(I tried very hard not to put spoilers for either book in this post and think I succeeded, but read at your own risk.)

Insurgent is the sequel to Divergent, which was one of my favorite books from last year. It picks up exactly where Divergent left off. I was so anxious to get Insurgent. This was probably my most anticipated book of the year and I put my name in for it at our library before they even ordered it. (At my old library you could do this online and I regularly requested quite a few titles. At the new library, which is much smaller, you have to do it in person and they write it on a little slip of paper. I feel much more greedy doing it in person and so rarely do.) The book finally came in and I rushed down to pick it up - and then it sat on my shelf for nearly the entire month. The thing is, while I loved Divergent, I don't love suspense that much. In fact, left to my own devices, when faced with a book that is crazy non-stop action, I'll repeatedly set it down in favor of internal suspense. (This is hard for me to define in words, it's a specific type of tension that kills me, not all tension.) But then, the due date came and there were other people on the hold list, so I forced myself to read it.

With an intro like that, you might suspect that I disliked the book, that it was torture to read. This would not be the case! I enjoyed it very much.  Insurgent is a non-stop ride. The action picks up immediately and there is not a break until the end for the reader or the characters. The factions are at full out war and it's hard to know who to trust.  Tris is devastated from events at the end of Divergent, which colors her actions for the entirety of Insurgent. She has to examine her loyalty and decide which faction, if any, she will follow. For much of the book she is at odds with Four, unable to explain herself to him out of dueling feelings of grief and guilt. Meanwhile, the Divergent are being hunted and she's desperate to figure out why and feels responsible for the group if she doesn't. Roth doesn't hold anything back either, in terms of character actions or plot development, with unpredictable results.

Overall, it's a whirlwind of a book with hardly a moment to catch your breath. For the first time in my life I read the last few pages when I was about a hundred pages from the end, just to reassure myself. I closed the book wishing I had the third book in the series in hand.

Insurgent
Veronica Roth (Tumblr) (Twitter)
Katherine Tegan Books
2012
544 pages