Crossed by Ally Condie

Release Date: 2nd November, 2011

Publisher: Puffin

Pages: 367pgs

The Story

Rules are different outside the Society.

Chasing down an uncertain future, Cassia makes her way to the Outer Provinces in pursuit of Ky-taken by the Society to his certain death - only to find that he has escaped into the majestic, but treacherous, canyons. On this wild frontier are glimmers of a different life and the enthralling promise of rebellion. But even as Cassia sacrifices everything to reunite with Ky, ingenious surprises from Xander may change the game once again.

Narrated from both Cassia's and Ky's points of view, this hotly anticipated sequel to Matched will take them both to the edge of Society, where nothing is as expected and crosses and double crosses make their path more twisted than ever . . .

The Review

A big thanks to Penguin Australia for sending me a review copy of this book!

CROSSED is part two of the dystopian trilogy by Condie and it takes place a few months after Matched has ended. You can read my book review of the first book here. The main heroine, Cassia, has been trying to get to the outer provinces in order to find Ky, her "soul mate". With some help from her matched partner and bestfriend, Xander, Cassia manages to get aboard on an airship which then takes her down to the provinces and to the exact location where she intends to find Ky stationed. But things don't necessarily go to plan because Ky has taken off and a lot of complications are coming on the horizon.

Here's the thing - I enjoyed the first book. It was entertaining enough, it was your simple classic dystopian society where the government is in charge of human lives, and there's always the constant danger of figuring out and knowing who to trust . . . knowing someone is always watching. But despite my liking of the first book, it doesn't mean you will like the sequel. This book falls under the title of the 'YA middle book syndrome'. The characters are going through a slow transition to get readers prepared for the final book, but for me it was so . . . I'm afraid to say . . . boring. For a much hyped-up young adult book series, I was expecting something very big to happen and while I do realize there's one more book left in the trilogy but I just couldn't - at all - connect to the story and its characters. Not even once. With very little happening in the story, with characters forever walking into the wilderness and with certain passages that made no sense whatsoever, it was a little unnerving to say the least and I found it was incredibly disappointing for a sequel.

One of the major elements I disliked the most in CROSSED was the sharing of points of view between the two main characters, Cassia and Ky. In Matched the book was only told in Cassia's POV and while it was good to see inside the mind of Ky this time round, but I would've preferred him to be a mystery like he was in the first book. I wanted just Cassia's thoughts since the two perspectives themselves made me pull out of the book constantly and I grew irritated also. Sure I found Ky's perspective far more entertaining as it contained more action than Cassia's dry dialogue and little step-by-step adventures, but I really really hope the final book sticks to one POV or else I might lose my mind completely. While I favoured Ky in Matched compared to Xander (who we didn't see a lot in the first installment), though in this book Ky did little for me. Plus, I didn't understand how Cassia is torn between both boys because it's clear to me who she wants the most . . . but maybe it's just me here thinking that.

The bottom line is: There's a 50/50 chance you're going to love this book. There's particular things you're going to love about it but there are some other things - scenes mostly - that are . . . a point of no return. However don't let me stop you in reading this sequel just because it wasn't the right book for me. While still admiring Cassia's character (even if she was annoying) and was vaguely interested in learning more about what's been going on with Ky, CROSSED was still a read you have to get through in order to finish a series and just know what's going on for the sake of knowing what's going on if you know what I mean. Despite my disappointment, I'll still be waiting to read the final showdown of book three of the series and I hope it'll be a satisfying conclusion compared to this sequel.

The Rating 2/5 stars