REVIEW: Crossed by Ally Condie

Crossed (Matched #2) by Ally Condie

Genre: Young Adult, YA Dystopian, YA Science Fiction

Pages: 367 pages (hardcover)

Publication: November 2011

(Dutton Juvenile)

Goodreads Summary: In search of a future that may not exist and faced with the decision of who to share it with, Cassia journeys to the Outer Provinces in pursuit of Ky - taken by the Society to his certain death - only to find that he has escaped, leaving a series of clues in his wake.

Cassia's quest leads her to question much of what she holds dear, even as she finds glimmers of a different life across the border. But as Cassia nears resolve and certainty about her future with Ky, an invitation for rebellion, an unexpected betrayal, and a surprise visit from Xander - who may hold the key to the uprising and, still, to Cassia's heart - change the game once again. Nothing is as expected on the edge of Society, where crosses and double crosses make the path more twisted than ever.

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Review: I liked Matched by Ally Condie, but I was not as impressed with it as other people were. I felt it lacked uniqueness, it felt too much like dystopias before it. Crossed on the other hand was enormously better, in my opinion, and actually felt more like an exciting new novel with the characters of Matched thrown in.

Picking up shortly after the events of Matched, Crossed switches up the format by taking turns switching from Cassias point of view to Kys. Cassia has journeyed to the Outer Provinces in search of Ky. Not knowing exactly where he was taken, she is on a mission to find him and join the resistance against the society. Ky is trying to make his way back to Cassia, he breaks away from the society at the perfect moment of diversion in hopes of being able to return to her. Adding a few new minor characters to support the two until there destined meeting, and keeping the love triangle with Xander (with only a brief actually appearance) a possibility. Crossed stets the stage for the final book in the series.

I felt like I was reading a different series this time around. Cassia felt like a different character, she was more developed to me this time around, making me like the story more. I felt like the author had found her voice and the writing finally showed it. There was a bit of history to the society and the resistance, making the background of the story more engaging, but also making me want to see where the journey is actually heading. I did find the story a bit slow at times; there were pacing issues with the switching of characters points of view but nothing that I couldn’t easily over look. I actually like having Kys point of view because I felt like it broke up some of Cassias monotony, and gave us another prospective of the rebellion and what it has cost some people.

Crossed gave me hope for this trilogy. I felt that as the second novel instead of lagging and building, as most tend to do in my opinion, it pushed forward and left me wanting to read the final novel to see how it all will play it out in the end. I hope that those of you who read Matched and were discouraged or unsure of the series like I was give Crossed a shot, because I believe that it will make up for what Matched lacked.

Rating: 4 stars