  | Full Text Reviews: Booklist - 09/15/2010 “Do not go gentle into that good night.” Cassia’s feelings of security disintegrate after her grandfather hands her a slip of paper just before his scheduled death at age 80. Not only does she now possess an illegal poem, but she also has a lingering interest in the boy who fleetingly appeared on her viewscreen, the one who wasn’t her match, the man she will eventually marry. What’s worse, she knows him—his name is Ky, and he is an orphan from the Outer Provinces. How could she love him as much as Xander, her match and best friend since childhood? The stunning clarity and attention to detail in Condie’s Big Brother–like world is a feat. Some readers might find the Society to be a close cousin of Lois Lowry’s dystopian future in The Giver (1993), with carefully chosen work placements, constant monitoring, and pills for regulating emotional extremes. However, the author just as easily tears this world apart while deftly exploring the individual cost of societal perfection and the sacrifices inherent in freedom of choice. - Copyright 2010 Booklist. Bulletin for the Center... - 11/01/2010 Cassia is ready to be matched-trusting the Society to make all of her daily choices, she is now putting her faith in them to find her an ideal partner with whom to mate (at a young age when her body is at peak condition) and live out her eighty years (after which she will be poisoned to save her from the ravages of old age). Since most matches come from faraway regions, she is shocked when Xander, a childhood friend, is picked for her; she’s even more surprised when a second match appears, a boy who cannot possibly be her mate because Ky is an Aberration and therefore ineligible to marry. Suddenly, Cassia is seeing flaws in the perfect system everywhere, and her ideal, cozy, protected world begins slowly unraveling as she realizes she is falling for Ky, doubting the wisdom and ethics of the Society, and putting herself and her loved ones in grave danger for not acquiescing to the endless rules of the Officials. Condie masterfully presents this not quite dystopian society with enough balance to make it clear how it is both suffocating and entirely warm and safe. There is an earnest, well-intentioned reason behind every creepy action the Society takes that sheds light on the way they attained all-powerful status. Cassia, hopelessly naïve but armed with a few tiny tools of resistance from her slightly rebellious family, is an excellent narrator, as she is both insider and outsider to the machinations of the Society, the most intriguing element of this otherwise predictable (but still well-developed) romance. Of course, Cassia chooses brooding, mysterious Ky instead of sturdy, amiable Xander, but it is the journey into independence that really changes Cassia in ways that readers will find memorable. AS - Copyright 2010 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. School Library Journal - 12/01/2010 Gr 7 Up—In a story that is at once evocative of Lois Lowry's The Giver (Houghton, 1993), George Orwell's 1984, and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, Condie introduces readers to the "perfect" Society. Cassia Reyes is a model student, daughter, and citizen. How could she not be when the Society has everything planned and functioning perfectly? All of her needs are met: food, shelter, education, career training, and even her future husband are selected by officials who know what is best for each individual by studying statistical data and probable odds. She even knows when she will die, on her 80th birthday, just as the Society dictates. At her Match Banquet she is paired with Xander, her best friend and certainly her soul mate. But when a computer error shows her the face of Ky, an Aberration, instead of Xander, cracks begin to appear in the Society's facade of perfection. A series of events also shakes her dedication to Xander and puts her future in jeopardy. Cassia exhibits some characteristics of Winston Smith and Lenina Crowne in her silent rebellion against societal control and in her illicit friendship with Ky but ultimately, and more satisfyingly, she is more like Lowry's Jonas. Her awakening and development are realistically portrayed, and supporting characters like Cassia's parents and her grandfather add depth to the story. The biggest flaw is that the story is not finished. Fans of the Giver will devour this book and impatiently demand the next installment.—Anthony C. Doyle, Livingston High School, CA - Copyright 2010 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Loading...
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