Review: Crossed (Matched, #2) by Ally Condie

Title: Crossed (Matched, #2)
Author: Ally Condie
Rating: ★★ (2/5 Stars)
Paperback, 367 Pages
Published March 2013
Book 2 of 3 in the Matched Trilogy

Summary: The Society chooses everything. The books you read. The music you listen to. The person you love. Yet for Cassia the rules have changed. Ky has been taken and she will sacrifice everything to find him. And when Cassia discovers Ky has escaped to the wild frontiers beyond the Society there is hope. But on the edge of society nothing is as it seems...A rebellion is rising. And a tangled web of lies and double-crosses could destroy everything.




I'm honestly bummed that this book didn't hold the same amount of that wow-factor for me as the first book in the trilogy, Matched, did. In Crossed, the second book, Ky has been sent to a village to be a decoy villager to basically get slaughtered by the enemy, while Cassia is away at a work camp under the false pretenses that she was being a rebellious teenager and needed some conditioning (however, the real reason that she's there is because her parents arranged the whole thing to help her find Ky). Like I pointed out in the last book, I don't know why Cassia doesn't just pick Xander. Actually, that isn't entirely true--I know why she doesn't. The main character needs a conflict, otherwise we'd just be reading about how Cassia married Xander and had tons of gorgeous kids and a good and respectful life. I'm still Team Xander all the way, though.

(Question: Would the series have been even more interesting if Cassia stayed with her Match, married Xander, had a perfect life and was living in the Society when the rebellions occurred? Imagine that--the rebellion from the perspective of an average, do-good citizen of the Society.)

So anyway, Crossed was pretty much just Cassia and her new found friend Indie trekking through the canyons in search of Ky, who in turn is trekking ahead of them through those very same canyons towards what he thinks is the Society, or wherever the heck he thought Cassia was. Wasn't really all that specific.

Also like I said in the last book, practically every other thought in Cassia's head is about Ky. She's on the run from the Society and all she's known, and all she's thinking about is HIM? Not her mom? Dad? Brother? Em? Even Xander only popped up once or twice...it just doesn't add up.

I tried really hard to like this book, especially since I absolutely fell in love with Matched, but I just couldn't do it. The action progressed so slowly and nothing kept me at the edge of my seat--nothing. I don't get it. I practically devoured the first book in the trilogy and was so excited to read more, which you can read more about here, and now I'm left feeling all blah. I'm really hoping that Reached, the final book in the trilogy, will be much better.

This is actually how I closed out my review of Matched last week:

"All in all, I found Matched to be an incredibly interesting and creative book. I'm definitely going to stick around to see how the trilogy plays out (as a matter of fact, I'm currently reading Crossed, which is the second book in the trilogy). I think Ally Condie is a great writer and I can't wait to see what else she has in store!"

For some reason, it looks like Crossed didn't appeal to me all that much. Don't get me wrong. Condie is a great writer and I still like her style. I just feel like this book had no gripping action that kept me on the edge of my seat, and as a result of that, I spent the entire weekend just reading so the book could be over and I could move onto the third book and hopefully find some more action.

However, there were some things that I DID like about the book, too. THERE ARE SOME SPOILERS AHEAD. SKIP THE PURPLE PARAGRAPH BELOW IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK.

Okay, I found the most interesting part of the book to be the part when I found out that Xander was a part of the Rising. I mean I'm sorry, WHAT? Perfect, golden-boy Xander becoming a part of something to take down the very system that gave him his perfect life and made him who he is? It's almost unfathomable. I'm really excited to see how the adventure goes in Reached and exactly what he does (and exactly when Cassia finds out about this).

Even though Crossed didn't excite and wow me as much as Matched did, I still have high hopes for the last book in the series and the trilogy as a whole. I hope that Reached satisfies all of my questions and wondering about how Cassia and her friends turn out, along with the Society. Can't wait to read it!