Ally Condie
When I heard Ally Condie speak at the 2010 ALAN Workshop following the NCTE conference she began by telling the audience that she had always pictured herself attending the conference as a teacher—not a writer. How things have changed for this former high school English teacher! Her novel, Matched, a dystopian tale for young adults, was published by Penguin in November 2010. Its highly anticipated sequel, Crossed, is due out this November with the third book planned for the following year. Despite her explosive career, Ally still keeps her teaching license current—just in case.
Ally has her degree from Brigham Young University. Following college, she spent several years teaching high school English in Salt Lake City and upstate New York. During her first year of teaching, Ally discovered that one of the girls in her class was the daughter of author Chris Crowe, best known for the award winning young adult novel Mississippi Trial, 1955—an intimidating way to kick off your teaching career. Other memorable moments from this period in her life included chaperoning school dances with her husband as a way to make a little extra money. Recalling that junior prom was her favorite to chaperone, Ally explained that all the students were on their best behavior—the boys made sure all the girls had dates. One year Ally witnessed a boy proposing during prom. This set off a dual reaction in her. From wanting to jump in and fix this bad idea and then also stopping and recognizing that it's the couples' own life to do with what they will.
That idea of being torn between wanting to fix young peoples' lives and stepping back to let them make their own way is a critical part of the narrative thread in Matched. In the world Ally created, the governing body, known as The Society, selects everything for you in return for a long life. Your job, who you marry, when you die: all determined by Society officials. The heroine in Ally's novel is Cassia, a teen who during her Matching ceremony experiences a rare occurrence: a mistake by The Society. After the screen shows the face of her mate, a second face briefly appears. This sets off a chain of events that lead to what Cassia never expected—a choice.
The desire for control is an important element in many dystopian novels. In Matched, messiness is unacceptable. The Society, through control, has been able to extended the life span and "improve" the quality of life for its people. The science behind the matching process in Ally's novel was influenced by her husband, an English major turned economist, who would often talk about algorithms for relationships. Since relationships can be a particularly messy element in anyone's life, it isn't a huge leap to see why controlling that would be appealing to a society striving for perfection. But as Ally pointed out, in life messy is real and unavoidable. In that regard, high schoolers are often in a strange place where feelings of both power and powerlessness exist. That painful juxtaposition is a natural fit with dystopian literature. While students in our world may not have Big Brother or a harsh government repressing them as in Matched, they can identify with the struggle against something or someone. In a recent piece written for MTV about dystopian novels Ally wrote, "when we read dystopia, we root for these people to break free because we are these people; hoping and fighting against things that are bigger than ourselves."
Matched is often recommended for fans of The Hunger Games and The Giver and, as do many young adult novels, it has a broad cross-over appeal. With a lot of buzz surrounding her book, Ally has been busy touring and promoting Matched. Her fans look forward to reading the next two installments in the trilogy--the start of a promising career.
Contributor: Emily Griffin
Ally Condie lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, with her husband and three sons. For additional information about Ally, visit her web site www.allysoncondie.com. To read the MTV article, visit http://hollywoodcrush.mtv.com/2011/05/06/matched-ally-condie-on-dystopian.
Photo source: www.allysoncondie.com
Reviews
Matched
Ally Condie
Seventeen-year-old Cassia has reached an important milestone. According to the Society, she is now both eligible and suitable to be Matched with her life partner. She feels a blend of excitement and trepidation as she approaches City Hall. Then she sees it--the face of her life partner--on the screen, and it is Xander, the best friend she has known her whole life. It's remarkably unusual for a Matched pair to originate in the same province, but it feels right. Or does it? Didn't the screen also show Cassia another face, that of a mysterious boy she knows named Ky? Which one really is her Match? What does it mean to be Matched to two people? How could the Society--responsible for everything from nutritional servings to housing, schooling and job assignment to movies and culture, and health, life and death--have made such a mistake? The death of her beloved grandfather and a series of decisions by the Society cause Cassia to question the foundation of the government that both shelters and smothers her family. This dystopic love story is the first book in a trilogy. In spite of similarities to previous dystopia tales, Condie's work feels fresh and original. Cassia is a believable, complex, poetic character and her struggles for understanding and justice ring true. Librarians who select this book should be aware that they will also need to reserve funds for books 2 and 3 upon their release. Readers will be waiting. 2010, Dutton Books/Penguin, $17.99. Ages 13 up. Reviewer: Heidi Hauser Green (Children's Literature).
ISBN: 9780525423645
Matched
Ally Condie
In a feathery voice, Kate Simses depicts 17-year-old Cassia Reyes and the dystopian world she lives in. Cassia is excited about learning the identity of the young man with whom she's been "matched." Romantic matching is one of the five functions controlled by the Society, which oversees its citizens' lives to ensure optimal outcomes for all. When Cassia momentarily sees the image of a different young man as her match, her destiny is forever changed, and events that reveal the deceptions of her Society are set in motion. Simses effectively portrays Cassia and is equally adept with the characters that surround her, especially her younger brother and her mother. A fascinatingly disturbing audio experience. A.C.P. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine 2010, Penguin Audio, Eight CDs, $29.95. Ages young adult. Reviewer: Anne Cole Pierce (Audiofile, February 2011).
ISBN: 9780142428634
Added 5/25/11
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