Before You Read

And Then What?
Based on the title and first page of the novel and knowing that the book is dystopian, the book will probably be about “rulers” choosing who you’ll marry. In the book description, the main character's name is Cassia. Apparently, she is matched with her best friend Xander. Afterwards, she discovers the person that was on her card that tells her about her match showed, not Xander, but another guy she knows. She sees Ky. When looking at the cover of the book, you see a girl inside a green bubble. This could mean that Cassia is trapped between the two guys.

Who Did It?

Ally Condie is a 34 year-old female author. She has been writing Young Adult novels for 12 years. She wrote the #1 New York Times Bestseller Matched. She lives just outside of Salt Lake City along with her husband and three sons. Ally went to Brigham Young University, and she is a former English teacher. She spent time being a teacher before she became an author.

Where Are We Again?

Matched takes place in a futuristic, socialist dystopian society. The Society chooses a person’s perfect match. The Society decides what everyone will eat and when they will die. People take tests to see what jobs they will do. There are also numerous amounts of rules in the society. Rules include curfew and no running in public. The citizens’ lives are controlled by the government. “Matching” is when someone is paired up with a boy or girl selected by the Society. The book features pre-arranged marriage and a love triangle. In this Society, government chooses all.

Are We There Yet?
1) In the book, characters have three different pills that they have to have with them at all times. They are first given blue, then green, then red. The effects of both the blue and green pills are known by most in the society, but the red pills are only taken when an official gives permission. The effects of the red pill are yet to be revealed, and it is unknown on what it will do by most characters in the novel. What does the red pill do?
2) In the novel, everything is governed by the Society. The Society decides who someone will marry, what someone will eat, and when someone dies. What the Society is is yet to be revealed. What makes up the Society?
3) When Cassia wakes up on the day after the Banquet, she takes off her “tags”. The tags seemed to be disk shaped, and the tags seemed to be distributed between family members. Cassia wonders what her dreams look like on paper, and she remarks that someone out there knows. Who is that someone, and why do the people in the novel do this?
4) Throughout the beginning of the novel, the rules of the society were emphasized. One of those rules is that everybody has to wear “normal clothes” at all times. Also, meals are sent to people because the people in the novel eat for health. The Banquet was the exception. The people who are being matched wear lavish clothing, and everyone at the Banquet eats exquisite food. Are there any other events that the Society deems worthy to “break” the common rules?
5) Cassia’s father works in restoration, and Cassia’s mother works in the Arboretum. Later on in the novel, it is revealed that Cassia will soon take a formal sorting test to decide what her job will be. What will her job be, and what kinds of jobs are there?