Matched characters

Appears from the start

Seventeen years old and about to attend her Match Banquet, where the Society will tell her whom she is to marry. Careful, obedient and quietly proud of doing things correctly, she trusts the Society's calculations completely: it decides what people eat, what work they do, whom they marry and when they die, and its predictions are almost never wrong. She has a gift for sorting data faster and more accurately than most people, which the Society has noticed and intends to use.

Appears from the start

Cassia's closest friend since childhood, confident and easy with people, who lives a few houses along the street. He is announced as Cassia's Match at the Banquet, an outcome that is almost unheard of, since Matches are normally strangers from other provinces.

Appears from the start

Cassia's mother, whose work with plants and crops takes her on official trips to other provinces. Loyal to the Society and anxious to keep her family in good standing with it.

Appears from the start

Cassia's father, who works in Restoration, cataloguing and clearing away what remains of the world that existed before the Society. Steady and cautious, he is more aware than he lets on of how much has been thrown away.

Appears from the start

Cassia's younger brother, cheerful and careless about small rules, who would rather be outdoors than doing the schoolwork the Society sets him.

First appears in chapter 4

A quiet boy from Cassia's neighbourhood who keeps to himself and works in a nutrition disposal centre rather than in any career the Society values. He was brought from the Outer Provinces as a child and placed with relatives after his parents died, and he is classed as an Aberration, which means he can never be Matched. He has learned to attract as little attention as possible.

First appears in chapter 2

Cassia's friend, who attends the Match Banquet on the same night and is delighted by the whole ceremony, the borrowed dresses and the promise of a name on a screen.

First appears in chapter 4

The Official assigned to Cassia after the irregularity with her microcard. Calm and reassuring, she explains what happened, watches how Cassia responds, and keeps coming back with more questions.

First appears in chapter 5

Cassia's grandfather, approaching his eightieth birthday, which under the Society's rules means his Final Banquet and his death on the day itself. Wry, affectionate and entirely clear-eyed about what is coming, he is closer to Cassia than anyone else in the family and talks to her as though she were already an adult.

First appears in chapter 10

Ky's uncle, who with his wife Aida took the boy in when he was brought from the Outer Provinces. The couple lost a son of their own, are protective of Ky, and are quietly conscious of how precarious his position in the province is.