Jim's picks

Jim's January 2012 pick

It was only natural that, after The Hunger Games took off like wildfire, there would be numerous attempts by authors to capture a little of the action for themselves. It happened after Harry Potter swish-and-flicked his way into our hearts; a flood of young wizards appeared on bookshelves everywhere. No sooner did Edward's blood get all hot for Bella than writers sucked our attention away with new vampire-human romances. Now, the young adult zeitgeist brings us various dystopias run by nefarious governments to fill our quiet reading moments.

One such world is that created by Ally Condie in Matched. Here, just about every aspect of a person's life, even the portions of food received each night for dinner, is controlled by the Society, a collection of all-knowing agents and agencies trusted by all. Young Cassia, the heroine of the novel, eagerly awaits the identity of her match, the young man chosen to be her lifemate by the Society. His name and face will be revealed to her in an official ceremony. She hopes it will be her best friend Xander, a boy she has known since childhood. Yet, unexpectedly, the face of an outcast is shown to her briefly before being replaced by the image of her dear Xander. All should be well, except that Cassia cannot accept the notion that this was an accident. Could the Society be up to something? And why are her dinner portions shrinking? Or are they?What's really going on? That's what Cassia wants to know and what you, too, can find out by reading the book.

As the saying goes imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Condie imitates the structure of Suzanne Collins's best-sellers in a number of ways: shadow government, love triangle, and nascent social unrest in the provinces, among them. What I liked best about Matched is that the author kept me turning pages without all the violence that is a hallmark of Katniss Everdeen's story. She also uses references to Dylan Thomas in an integral way throughout the book. The English teacher nerd in me finds that cool.

So I recommend Matched, and the subsequent titles in the series (the second book, Crossed, is out now in hardcover), to anyone who likes a good story, to fans of the Hunger Games, and to those who wanted to indulge in that other trilogy but was put off by the blood lust. Nothing more serious here than a manipulative overbearing government - quite timely considering it's primary season.