Bestselling YA novel Matched celebrates its 10th anniversary with a Deluxe Gold Edition

Ally Condie’s bestselling YA novel Matched is turning 10 years old in November and you’ll be able to buy a special Deluxe Gold Edition to celebrate.

This November, Ally Condie’s bestselling novel Matched will celebrate its tenth anniversary. A dark, dystopian story of love and fate in a flawed utopian world, the novel kicks off a successful, celebrated trilogy that’s a must-read for any fans of YA fiction.

In the Society, officials decide everything – or really, what is essentially an algorithm does – who you love, where you work, when you die. In this world, when you turn 17, you’re officially “matched” and shown an image of the life partner who’s meant for you. But…what if they aren’t?

When seventeen-year-old Cassia is Matched with her best friend, Xander Carrow, she’s thrilled. She knows with complete certainty that he’s The One, and her life is on its correct path. However, when viewing the information for her Match, the picture of another young man, Ky Markham, flashes across her screen. As Cassia attempts to figure out what happened, she must also face a choice: Is Xander or Ky right for her? And does she truly believe in everything that the Society has taught her?

Along with The Hunger Games, Matched was one of the first series that got me into reading YA fiction as an adult, thanks to its intriguing dystopian premise and likable heroine who struggles to reconcile her own wants with the system she’s been raised to believe in. I mean..haven’t we all sometimes wondered if life wouldn’t be easier if someone just told us what to do? Warned us off of unsuitable love interests? Steered us to a job we’d succeed at?

To commemorate the novel’s 10th anniversary, Penguin will publish a deluxe gold edition trade paperback on November 10, 2020, featuring an extensive retrospective Q&A with Condie and Soman Chainani, bestselling author of the School for Good and Evil series.

“I’m thrilled about this beautiful new anniversary edition of Matched!” Condie says in a statement.

“We’ve included new, never-before-seen content and a gorgeous, golden celebration of the now-iconic cover, designed by Theresa Evangelista. Over the past ten years, it’s been my absolute privilege and joy to interact with readers, educators, booksellers, and librarians who’ve discovered Cassia’s story. I hope the new edition both gives something back to the faithful fans and opens the Matched world up to new possibilities and people. ”

The special edition will also feature a bonus story, “Green Girl in a Green Dress,” as well as a discussion guide. The gold edition will also include the first official map of the Matched trilogy world, created with a professional cartographer and based on Ally Condie’s own drawings.

Plus, there’s even more good news for fans of the Matched universe.

Following the publication of Matched, three more novels were published in the world of the Society. Crossed and Reached are direct sequels, and continue Cassia’s story. The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe is a contemporaneous novel set in the remote world of the Outpost and featuring an entirely new group of characters.

Penguin will concurrently release the trade paperback of The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe alongside the gold anniversary edition on November 10, and it will also feature new, original content for fans to get excited about.

Are you looking forward to returning to the world of the Society this Fall? What did you think of the Matched trilogy?