Crossed

This post first published August 24, 2012.

Author: Ally Condie
Series: Matched #2
First Published: November 2011
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
367 pages (hardcover)
 
The first book, Matched, didn’t really impress me that much but I kind of wanted to find out what happens anyway, so I got this second book from the library. Unfortunately, I liked Crossed even less than I like Matched. In a nutshell, Crossed was boring. At least in the first book, stuff happened. Nothing much happens in this book. You could probably skip this book and jump into the third one with little problem.

In Crossed, the story is narrated by both Cassia and Ky in alternating chapters, unlike the first book. Ky has been sent to the Outer Provinces for “work”, but really, has been sentenced to die. Cassia, desperate to reunite with Ky, goes with her work group to the Outer Provinces as well, and when the perfect opportunity arises, runs away with the help of a new friend, Indie. Together, they try to find Ky, who has also escaped from his “work”. Together, their little group try to piece together fragments of clues that hint that there is a rebellion group, the Rising, which Cassia and Indie want to find and join. Ky, on the other hand, has reservations about joining the Rising. Or, in short, there is a rebellion called the Rising, which Cassia and Ky end up joining. Boom, that’s the whole book.

The entire plot of this book could have been condensed and packed into whatever the next book contains, or the previous book. To me, this book’s plot is simple and short, but the author stretched it to fill one book’s worth. The result was a book that moved at a snail’s pace and felt like nothing much was happening most of the time. At the end of the book, I felt like the characters and the story have not progressed very far from where they were when Matched ended. Even Cassia and Ky’s relationship felt stagnant, and in this book, a bit overdone. I can tell the author was trying to make their relationship more deep and meaningful, but it did not work, at least for me. Cassia and Ky’s relationship always felt a bit forced to me, but it’s like full force in this book. Over and over again, the two of them monologue’d about how much they love one another, how they would do anything for one another, writing/thinking poetry about one another (literally). I felt like they were trying to convince me that they were deeply in love, but it came off as too forced instead.

Also combined with the thin plot was the author’s writing style. I think the author writes really well and beautifully. I have no qualms with Ally Condie’s writing. The problem is she writes almost too well. The boring story combined with the poetic, dramatic writing style of the author meant reading a lot about overly wordy passages, another reason why I think this book feels like it was really forced.
Lastly, the setting of this book was quite stagnant and never changed very much. We are no longer in Society where there’s all sorts of different places the characters could visit. We are with Cassia, Ky and their friends running around a canyon for the entire book. There are only rocks, caves and rivers which were repeatedly described.

All in all, I was not impressed with Crossed. I know I wasn’t that crazy about Matched either, but I did think it had potential to get better, so Crossed was rather disappointing. Am I going to read book three? Well, I’ve come this far and it’s the last book, so I’ll probably read it for the closure.

My Rating: 2/5