What Could Have Been

[ddegreeff]

I just finished reading Ally Condie's YA dystopian, MATCHED, and while I thought it was at least mostly enjoyable, I couldn't help but wonder if Condie had missed out on the chance to create something of much greater importance. Check out the Amazon summary at http://amzn.to/fYrEh5 if you're unfamiliar with the story, but it's basically about a teenage girl named Cassia living in a future world with a restrictive government, dealing with the burgeoning, forbidden love she feels for a boy named Ky, and how that conflicts with the government's having 'matched' her as a perfect mate to another boy, Xander. The love story is well-structured, but to me felt a little too much like a run-of-the-mill story about a girl torn between two loves, simply set in the future to spice things up. So as I read, my mind briefly wandered, and I started to wonder how I would have changed things if I were the author. After a few minutes, I realized that if the book were kept almost completely the same in terms of structure, it could be made infinitely more interesting with a single, slight twist -- what if her forbidden love, Ky, was a female character instead? After all, the greats often use sci-fi as a means of exploring various social issues, and the issues of same-sex love, rights, and acceptance seem to be appearing in the news more and more each day, as well as everywhere else in the real world. This book could have provided an entertaining, non-preachy tool to safely explore a topic that many teens find intimidating and uncertain. I'm guessing this tweak might not have lined up quite as well with whatever Condie has planned for the rest of the series, but in the case of this single book, it struck me as an intriguing example of an opportunity missed.
So what books are out there that you folks think could have been, if not improved, set on a different track by a slight change in the story?

[Moni12]

Hunger Games. I only read the first one and before I finished I thought "this is perfect". Then we got to the end and the protagonist became officially split between to guys. I am not a fan of the love triangle and if I hear about a book or movie that uses it I won't read/watch it based on that no matter how interesting it sounds. It feels over done to me and there are other ways of creating tension in a story. Not to mention, the love triangle tends to make the characters self sympathetic and obnoxiously emo.

[Cookie]

Hunger Games. I only read the first one and before I finished I thought "this is perfect". Then we got to the end and the protagonist became officially split between to guys. I am not a fan of the love triangle and if I hear about a book or movie that uses it I won't read/watch it based on that no matter how interesting it sounds. It feels over done to me and there are other ways of creating tension in a story. Not to mention, the love triangle tends to make the characters self sympathetic and obnoxiously emo.

I thought the same thing! I literally rolled my eyes at the end of the HUNGER GAMES and thought really? I'm not a fan of them either. If they are done well, and are not the major source of conflict, then maybe I will tolerate them, but on the whole I find them obnoxious. Are girls really that wishy-washy in real life? I don't know. I've always been the type that if I'm in a relationship with someone and a guy friend shows interest in me, I instinctively push away from them. It actually annoys me that they would have feelings for me (I know that some people can't help who they like, and I've been guilty of it a few times, but said I was reasonable?)

ddegreeff, I felt the same way about MATCHED. It kinda bored me. No, it DID bore me. I felt it had so much potential, especially the society. A dystopian is supposed to be depressing. I want it to give me anxiety when I read it. For me, I felt that Cassia had too easy a time getting away with things.

[Falls Apart]

I never read the book, but I don't think changing a heterosexual romance to a homosexual one automatically improves it. If it was shallow guy-girl, it's shallow girl-girl as well. However, I do wish there were more lesbian relationships portrayed in the media, because they can be interesting and sweet. But I can think of exactly one book that had a relationship between two girls that wasn't hyper-sexualized or stereotyped, and even that was unrequited. And totally off-topic--it has a guy named Xander? I love that name!

[ddegreeff]

Maybe I mis-stated what I was trying to say -- I don't think changing the gender of Ky would have improved the book in terms of quality, but I think it might have made the book actually have a bit more meaning. The love story was well-established, and I would have liked to have seen such a mainstream book take a look at a homosexual relationship without trying to shove any sort of point down anyone's throat.

[sierramcconnell]

I have not read either book world but this gives me hope because I have rather well built same sex relationships in both of my worlds and was afraid it might not be well accepted. But if people are actually looking for more of that type of thing, well, woot! :3

[Sommer Leigh]

I try to steer clear of "rewriting" another author's story, but I have to admit that changing Ky to a girl would have made a really interesting story. I hope someone writes something like that.

As for the book itself, I really liked Matched for the most part, though I kind of felt like it was a very long prologue to the real story. I think Crossed is going to be ridiculously cool though, I can't wait. I think Matched set it up to be awesome.

[Cookie]

As for the book itself, I really liked Matched for the most part, though I kind of felt like it was a very long prologue to the real story. I think Crossed is going to be ridiculously cool though, I can't wait. I think Matched set it up to be awesome.

I hope you're right.