Cassia lives in the Society, a world that controls every aspect of its citizens' lives, from the food they eat, to the clothes they wear; how much exercise they do and they even determine who you marry. After Cassia is matched to an old friend, she is stunned by appearance of another face on her matching screen. Told this is a mistake, and that the other boy is forbidden to her, she becomes interested. Sparked into question following the death of her Grandfather, Cassia begins to wonder if there is anything she can choose.
Despite the similarity to 'The Giver' I really liked this one. The world was decently built, and unlike most YA novels, it didn't have 'absent parent' syndrome. While the focus is forbidden romance, it doesn't slot into 'instalove' and moves at a slow pace. The simmering undercurrents of this society are truly dystopic, and unlike 'The Giver', offers an actual calculated menace behind the placidity. This is not a society that does not understand its history from choice, its a society that willfully supresses their past, and the people who work within it.
My only caveat is its slow pace, and focus on Ky and Cassia's forbidden fling. I somehow feel the romance could have been left out, and her awakening forced by her grandfather.
****
Despite the similarity to 'The Giver' I really liked this one. The world was decently built, and unlike most YA novels, it didn't have 'absent parent' syndrome. While the focus is forbidden romance, it doesn't slot into 'instalove' and moves at a slow pace. The simmering undercurrents of this society are truly dystopic, and unlike 'The Giver', offers an actual calculated menace behind the placidity. This is not a society that does not understand its history from choice, its a society that willfully supresses their past, and the people who work within it.
My only caveat is its slow pace, and focus on Ky and Cassia's forbidden fling. I somehow feel the romance could have been left out, and her awakening forced by her grandfather.
****
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