Oh, I have a music exam on Monday... and Monday is Music Monday day. That's weird.

Yeah.

Paloma Faith.

Lots of the marvelous letter "T".

Since I have adherently decided that exam time is the bestest time ever to get back into teen fiction, I'm doing this thing for the blog. It was going to be called "Tora Tracks Twin's Tales" or "Victoria Vandalizes Victim's Victories" (not to say that you're my victim, at all, Allie...) where all of the nice books that Allie has reviewed or described her undying excitement over their expected releases, I'm going to track down and read. I've already started (but you'll hear about that in just a second) and maybe I'll even post some reviews of my own in order that my dear sister actually /reads/ some of the thingies I've been nagging her to read (cue: evil laugh).
The truth is, dear internet, that I've been wasting far too much of my time studying for those pesky GCSEs and most of my reading has been of unpublished works by independant authors online *coughfanfictioncough* for cheap kicks. Time to return to the realm of literature excellence.

First off, "Matched" and the subsequent novels "Crossed" and "Reached" by Allie Condie.

So, set in a futuristic Earth (I assume America because the massive continental plate and exclusion of the letter "u" in places in should be) the Society has salvaged a population of 20,000 people, who live in peace under its jurisdiction. Or not? Cassia Reyes begins to uncover some of the faults in the fabric of the Society on her seventeenth birthday, when the Society presents her with her perfect partner for life.

I think I read this book without hearing of any of the hype about it, so I had no expectations about it. Literally, a friend handed it to me on the bus home, saying, "It's OK". The fascinating thing about this series is how the story half plays out in the setting of the book, and half in the character's heads. Connecting with Cassia was easy, as we interpret the world and events happening to her through her thoughts and reactions to it. In the later books, we also have Xander's and Ky's viewpoints. Aside from the lovely writing, the use of poetry to style the flow of the story and the life given to the other characters in the book made it even better the second time round. It's a rare series that doesn't lose any expectations as you proceed to the second and third books. Tora gives thumbs up.

I feel like this needs a picture.

There.

OK, peace out, blogosphere.

Tora.

PS. I'll get back to you on the title for this. Is the alliteration too much?