Hello bookworms and welcome back to Josie’s Book Corner! Today I am bringing to you a very exciting and new tag, that was created by CW @ Read, Think, Ponder! Please click her blog name to go to her blog – which is simply phenomenal – and to also see all the information regarding this clever new tag!
I am too excited to do this to delay any further, so let’s get into what this tag is all about . . .
For this tag, I must review a book I read 2 or 3 years ago. (However, if you’ve only recently gotten involved in the reading game, you can pick the first book you read). But here is the best part about this tag: I have tor review my chosen book completely from memory! Which means, no looking at the blurb and NO checking Goodreads! How cool is that right? This is the most clever tag ever and I am so excited for this.
This tag is also broken into three different parts:
– The summary: where I tell you a little bit about the book, from my memory.
– The thoughts: where I do my little review of the book, once again from my memory
– The epilogue: where I go back and actually look up the summary, and then tell you what I got wrong, or what I forgot! Gosh, this is going to be so fun.
The Summary:
In this section, I must dig through my memory to give you a little summary of what this book is about. So I will be sharing with you approximately when I read this book and also my best book blurb from memory! This is going to be SO CHALLENGING because I have the worst memory there is. Thankfully, books I enjoyed tend to stick with me a little bit. However, it’s still going to be hard!
For this tag, I will be reviewing Matched by Ally Condie!
So Matched follows the POV of a young girl named Cassia who is about to turn eighteen. This novel is set in a dystopian world where the government or the people who control everything, are called The Society and they dictate everything. They control everything that the people do, think, say, read, see, hear… you get the point.
Cassia has always followed what the Society has said, never questioning what they tell her, never questioning the life she lives. She is content and happy, and on this day, she is also due to be Matched. Which means, she is about to be given her ultimate match, the boy who she will be marrying. The Society propagates that the person who you are matched to, is your ‘soul mate’.
However, everything changes when something goes wrong with Cassia’s Match. A face she has never seen before – the face of a boy who is supposed to be banned from the Match pool, appears on her screen. And then it disappears, to be replaced by the ‘right’ guy, who is supposedly her best friend. She should be happy, but despite everything, she cannot get her mind off the first boy that appeared on her screen. And she can’t help but wonder if he was the one she is meant to be with. A series of questioning everything that she knows about her life and her world ensues.
The Thoughts:
From what I can gather from the deepest crevices of my small mind, is that I loved this book three years ago. It was possibly my first ever YA dystopian novel! I think I can remember enjoying Cassia’s character, and I also distinctly remember being very charmed by Ky, one of the boys that Cassia was matched to. I remember being totally gripped to this story and when I finished it, all I wanted to do was fly through the rest of the series – which I proceeded to do so. I remember smiling with happiness, reading in intense and foreboding silence and squealing with horror and excitement and angst as I read this book. However, I don’t know if I’d be doing the same if I read this again today.
The characters names, I’m pretty sure I can remember. Cassia, who is obviously the main character. Xander, the boy who is Cassia’s best friend and also the boy who was matched with Cassia after the ‘technical difficulty’. Ky, the boy whose face was first matched with Cassia. I really loved Ky. He was mysterious, but he was such a strong and tough guy. At least, that is what I thought at the time.
Matched I believe, explored themes that most dystopian novels do today. The idea of a supreme government that knows all, sees all and controls all is explored. I remember that I got a few important messages from this book – that not everything could and should be controlled, especially something like death. Agh, this is so hard when you have a horrible memory! I can’t remember much else, to my frustration, but I believe that if I went back and read it again today, I’d most likely see different messages within this book.
As for the significance of this book on my life? It introduced me to the lovely dystopian genre and was one of the books that initially sparked my love and obsession for reading. And when I think about it, this book was also probably the book where I had my first OTP! This isn’t the type of book that has a meaningful, heart-touching effect on your life, though.
The Epilogue
YES! Here comes the fun part! This is where I’ll give you the ACTUAL blurb and where I look up the summary to see what I forgot or got wrong. Let’s see how we go…
What parts did I remember correctly and what parts were not so on point?
Alright, so I got the names right. Cassia is the main character and the two boys, Xander and Ky are who I said they were. Phew! And I got the basic story line correct, except they don’t get matched on their eighteenth birthday, it’s actually on their seventeeth birthdays! Ah!
The event where Cassia got matched? I got that a little bit wrong too. Here’s what really happened: Cassia gets matched to the person she always knew and hoped it would be – her best friend Xander. She’s overjoyed. Until, when she goes home to look at her microchip, which has all the information about the man she will be with for the rest of her life, the face that appears is not Xanders. It’s Ky. A boy who is not allowed to be matched because of his status in society.
What did I forget?
I totally forgot the scene between Cassia and her grandfather! Which is surprising because it was the moment when Cassia began to really question Society, even the mystery and angst really began to grow for me.
Okay, to be honest, I forgot most of the events that happened throughout the story. But after skimming through the general summary of the story, I realise that I really do remember those scenes quite clearly. I remember the main sequence of events that happened throughout the story including: (the text is written in white due to being spoilery, but if you don’t care, highlight it with your mouse!
How Cassia’s grandfather, on his deathbed, gave Cassia advice to open her eyes to the world, giving her poetry, which was illegal. I remember when Ky and Cassia meet, and he teacher her how to memorise the poems, because she obviously must destroy the physical copies. I remember the moment when Cassia’s father lost their grandfather’s tissue sample (or did he?) and the authorities got extremely mad. And when Cassia was banned from seeing Ky, just when she was hopelessly in love with him.
If I read this book again, would I feel differently? Would I still like it? Would I re-read it?
I read this book at a time when my mind was very narrow. I wasn’t experienced in the things of the world, let alone the world of YA novels. At the time, I feel hopelessly in obsession and love with this book, because quite frankly, I didn’t have anything to compare it to. However, now I do. I think that if I read this again, I’d still get engrossed in the story, but it won’t blow me away as much as it did the first time around.
I’d definitely read this again, if only for the sheer fact of experiencing the story again to see how I react to it again after three years! I have a feeling I’d definitely still enjoy it. On the contrary, as I mentioned before, it will not blow me away at the same magnitude it did the first time.
Time To Tag People!
I hereby tag the following awesome bloggers to do this tag. . .
Angie @ Love Thy Shelf
Becca @ Becca and Books
Erika @ Bookventureland
Erika and Miedjel @ Partners in Books
Lia @ Book Land
Michelle @ The Writing Hufflepuff
The Rules:
1. Please link back to Read Think Ponder’s post, so that the original rules are always accessible to anyone who is curious and wants to participate!
2. Remember: do not look up your book when writing its Summary and Thoughts.
3. Acknowledge the person who tagged you in your post.
4. Tag your friends and fellow bloggers – it’s up to you how many!
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