Plot:
Matched, as I've been explaining, is a futuristic, sort of post-apocalyptic, dystopian novel. It is the story of Cassia Reyes, girl who has just turned 17 and had her "Matching Banquet." She lives in a society called "The Society," where everything is controlled and managed by them. It is a form of government where everything is measured for the "optimum survival" of the human race, or so they say.
Here, as stated before, at the age of 17, the young men and women (teens) are "Matched" to their "perfect" mate, based on all of their similarities and the probability of a successful match and a happy life. When they are 21, they can enter into a Marriage Contract with their Matched and become husband and wife.
Everyone's food here is measured with consideration of their individual physical nutrient needs, not for the best taste or their pleasure. The only time they get treats is when someone close to them is having their Final Banquet, or they are having their own. This happens when they are 80. The 80 year olds is poisoned, and that is how they die. It is are natural procedure there. Gifts are given and tissue samples are taken so maybe someday they can be cloned.
Rules MUST NOT be broken, and if they are, it is called getting an Infraction or a written Citation.
Each person in the Society carries three pills, or tablets, with them in their lifetime. A green pill that will calm you (you can take up to one per week without an Official checking with you, and it is physically safe to take up to one per day), a red one that can only be taken when a high Official tells you to, which clears memories and not many people know about, and a blue one that can, in case of an emergency, help the person to survive nutritionally for about a month.
But no one has a choice. You can not chose your vocation (career, or Work Position), you can not chose your daily job that you are obligated to have as a teenager, you can't chose your mate, and you can't chose where you live or visit. It is justified that people with choice don't choose wisely, or in a way that would help assure the best survival of the human race.
But Cassia and Ky would like to make some choices for themselves. And so would some of their friends and family. This can not be good. Or can it? Cassia thinks it could be, and wants to find out. How it feels to make choices, and think for herself.
Characters:
Cassia Maria Reyes: The main character and main protagonist. A 17 year old girl with long dark brown and green eyes, of average height and build. Is Matched with her best friend Xander, but them is shown the picture of another boy she knows and was once friends with. She becomes involved with him and falls in love with him.
Grandfather: Cassia's grandpa, her father's father. One of her favorite people in the world. Dies as the Society plans, on his 80th birthday, after his Farewell ceremony. The person who challenged Cassia to imagine and press the boundaries, think outside the box, and to not go gentle.
Abran Reyes: Cassia and Bram's father, Molly's husband, an Artifact Sorter Official. Destroys Grandfather's DNA sample because Grandfather asked him to.
Molly Reyes: Abran Reyes' wife, Cassia and Bram's mother. Worker at the Arboretum, basically the plant and flower center of the Oria Province, where the Reyes' family lives.
Bram Reyes: Cassia's 10 year old little brother, Abran and Molly's son, born weeks before Molly's childbearing cutoff of 31 years old. Looks somewhat like Grandfather, is very spunky, adores Cassia, though he tries to hide it. Possibly has a crush on Serena, Cassia teases him about it.
Serena: A neighbor girl in the Maple Borough (where the Reyes live) that possibly has a crush of Bram, and who he possibly likes back.
Norah: Cassia's boss, or Supervisor, at her computer Sorting job.
Em (and Dalen): Em is Cassia's best girl friend, one of her best friends period. She is just a month or so younger than Cassia. At her Match Banquet, she is Matched with a boy from another City named Dalen.
Sera: Another friend of Cassia's, in her and Xander's group of friends.
Piper: Another female friend of Cassia and Xander's. Gets her occupation assigned early.
Ky Markham: A childhood friend of Cassia's, though had been somewhat removed from her group of friends lately because of his early work position, which he got stuck with because of his status as an Aberation. He is a food sanitation worker, very hard work, has turned his hands red from working in hot water. Moved to Mapletree Borough when he was 10, when Aida and Patrick adopted him because his parents were killed in the Outer Provinces. It is thought he was allowed to come live with them as compensation for an Anomaly killing their biological son. Also, the second boy Cassia sees when her Matched memory card malfunctions and shows her two Matches. Little does she know, he was shown her picture as his Match too, when the Officials explain their "mistake." Ky is in love with Cassia.
Aida Markham: Ky's adoptive mother and biological aunt who loves him very much.
Patrick Markham: Ky's adoptive father and uncle by marriage. Holds a high position in the government offices. Cares for Ky as a second son.
Markham boy: Patrick and Aida's biological son, who was murdered by an Anomaly who was able to sneak into the government offices where Patrick worked and where his son was with him that day.
Xander Thomas Carrow: 17 year old boy, Cassia's best friend and original Match. Tall, buff, blond, and blue-eyed. Loves Cassia more than just a best friend, had dreamed of her being his Match.
Mr. Carrow: Xander's father.
Mrs. Carrow: Xander's mother.
Lea Abbey (and Joseph Peterson): Lea was an acquaintance of Cassia's, with the same Match Banquet date, first to be Matched that night, wearing a bright red dress and bracelet she twirled nervously. Was tall, pretty, with blond hair and blue eyes. Cassia thought she would have chosen to be a Single. Was Matched with Joseph Peterson, a handsome young man from another CIty.
Mrs. Nash: An obnoxious old lady in Grandfather's final ward, who was kind of senile, and wanted to attend Grandfather's Final Banquet even though she barely knew him.
Lon: A winey, obnoxious kid in Cassia and Ky's hiking group/class for summer leisure activity.
Livy: A pretty blond girl in Cassia and Ky's hiking group/class that flirted with Ky, making Cassia jealous when she thought he was flirting back with her.
Tay: The boy Livy ends up getting paired up with for hiking partners, when she had wanted to be paired with Ky.
The Hiking Officer: The Army Official/Officer in charge of hiking as a leisure activity, gruff but fair.
The Matching Official (Official Standler): Cassia refers to her as "my Official." A major antagonist in the story. A bully and horrible liar. At first appears as an ally, but as Cassia learns more from Ky, she realizes Standler is a liar and was trying to use her, just making Ky and Cassia out to be an experiment that she and others had orchestrated. She's lying. Someone (and she doesn't know who) put Ky's name in the Matching database.
The Biomedical Officials: The Officials who come to collect Grandfather's tissue sample and then have to search Abran for it when he says he's lost it.
Dylan Thomas: 1914-1953- A poet from the pre-Society world, with one poem no poems that survived as one of the 100 Poems, but had many, like the one that was in Cassia's old 1940s make-up compact her Grandfather gave her.
Lord Alfred Tennyson: 1809-1892- A poet from the pre-Society world, that had one poem survive as one of the 100 Poems, but that had many others that did not, like the second one that was in Cassia's compact.
Queen Anne: One of the subjects from the 100 History Lessons, but people hardly remember, just because of the plant, Queen Anne's Lace.
Courting Official: The Official that supervises Xander and Cassia's first courtship outing, a dinner at what would be considered a "restaurant" now.
Sisyphus: The main character of a myth Ky tells Cassia when they are hiking, but little do they know, it is based on a story from Greek mythology.
The Society and the Officials: The Society is the new government and society set up in the future, which consists of several provinces, like Oria Province, that are divided into Cities, industrial areas on the edge of Cities, and Farmlands. Their is a central Capitol, which is the center of the framework of government. The Outer Provinces are several in number, but all exist under that name. They are buffer/border states basically set up to protect the rest of Society from the unknown enemies on the outside of the Society. The Officials are basically government workers that work for the Society, and there are many divisions of them. Some are higher up and no more of the nasty hidden workings of Society than others.
Museum Curator: The man in charge of the Museum, surprised yet pleased when Cassia comes, because no one in the Society wants to dwell on the past.
Archivist at the Museum: An underground worker at the museum that works with the group called Archivists that buy, sell, and trade things from the Old World, like words of forbidden poems and Artifacts that aren't registered.
