Ally Condie

Ally Condie is an American YA author whose Matched dystopian trilogy — set in a society where the government controls all major life choices including who you love — became a bestselling series in the tradition of The Hunger Games and Divergent.

Ally Condie published Matched in 2010, the first volume of a YA dystopian trilogy set in a society called the Society — a future authoritarian state that controls citizens’ food, occupations, activities, and romantic partners through algorithmic matching. Cassia Maria Reyes, the protagonist, is matched to her best friend Xander, but sees another face flash briefly on the screen during the matching ceremony. The conflict between the algorithmically correct partner and the one she actually falls for drives the trilogy’s central tension.

Matched, Crossed, and Reached form a series that sits squarely in the post-Hunger Games dystopian YA tradition: the female protagonist caught between two male interests in a society she gradually comes to resist, climaxing in open rebellion. Condie’s version is characterized by a quieter, more literary tone than many of its genre contemporaries — she draws on poetry as a recurring motif, and the prose is more considered than is typical in fast-moving YA dystopia.

The series was a commercial success, reaching bestseller lists and being acquired for film adaptation. Condie was a schoolteacher in Utah before her writing career took off, and her books have been appreciated by teachers and librarians for the quality of their reading experience alongside their entertainment value. She has subsequently published additional YA novels, including the standalone Atlantia (2014).