Title: Crossed (Matched #2)
Author: Ally Condie
Genre: Young Adult/Dystopian
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Format: Hardback
Release Date: November 1, 2011
Cassia’s search for Ky, and a new future with him, has taken her to the Outer Provinces, where death and danger are commonplace. But Ky is not there and now Cassia must follow a series of clues left by him, across a land she is completely unfamiliar with. Cassia’s journey not only leads her toward Ky, but it leads her to question everything she believed. Along the way, she faces betrayal, a chance to join the rebellion and an unexpected visit from Xander—who may still hold more than a piece of her heart. Now Cassia has a new path to follow, filled with crossings and double-crossings and no way of knowing what to expect out on the edge of the Society.
Oh, where to start? I absolutely loved Matched, the first book in Ally Condie’s planned Match trilogy. It had a great story, it was filled with fascinating, interesting characters and ideas, it was well-thought out and absolutely engrossing. I could not wait to read its sequel, Crossed. But I did wait, drawing out my anticipation as I plowed through my to-be-read pile until I got to it. Unfortunately, the anticipation of reading Crossed turned out to be more exciting than the actual book. *Insert sad face here* I was sorely disappointed in this much-anticipated sequel.
Crossed was vastly different from its predecessor. It was a mixture of poetic waxing and soul-searching babble, with a very small touch of interesting thrown in. I was bored, literally bored, throughout the majority of this book. About halfway through, I seriously considering not finishing and just giving it up to read one of my cookbooks. At least that might have kept me awake. But, I kept reading, in the hopes that maybe it would get better. I kept reading and hoping, hoping and reading. Interesting never happened. I also spent a lot of time confused while reading, thanks to Condie’s choice to switch back and forth between Ky and Cassia as narrator. There were times I read 3-4 pages in a chapter, only to discover that I wasn’t reading Ky’s point of view, but I was instead reading Cassia’s point of view. I kept having to go back and check to see who the narrator of the chapter was. That was extremely annoying. Just one more thing to add to my list of reasons not to reread this book. Ever.
When I read a book with the intention of writing a review for it, I do not read the reviews of others (such as those posted on Goodreads, LibraryThing or Amazon) because I do not want to be prejudiced or influenced in any way by what others have to say. In the case of Crossed, I wish I had checked out the reviews of others before I chose to read this book.
My grade for Crossed by Ally Condie:
Sorry to hear it didn't rock your socks. I loved Matched too. I realllly need to read this one and see where I stand on it. Great review.
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