Crossed by Ally Condie

Summary:
In this sequel to Matched, Cassia leaves her home to work in the Outer Provinces. No one knows that she's actually on the search for Ky, who was sent to another work camp. But when she hears that Ky has escaped into the desolate canyons, Cassia leaves the Society and follows him. During her search, Cassia hears more talk of the Rising, a rebellion that is planning to overthrow the Society. She desperately wants to join and is willing to sacrifice anything to be a part of something important.

Review:
Crossed was an okay novel and I liked it well enough. The writing was good but the plot was nonexistent. It's obvious that Crossed is the second book of the trilogy because not that much happens and it is used as a build up for the final book. Unfortunately, this makes Crossed pretty boring. I enjoyed the writing, but that didn't make up for the lack of action.

It also doesn't help that I don't actually believe that Ky and Cassia are in love. Their relationship/romance in Matched was written so poorly and the readers were just told that they loved each other even though they interacted like three times throughout the novel. So it was hard to read about how much they loved each other because I just didn't believe it.

The book is also split into two parts, which Ky and Cassia each taking turns to narrate. I liked this a lot, especially when the two were separated, because the reader could see what each was doing. However, as soon as their stories intersect, the double narration is annoying because I could never tell you was actually talking.

Despite the slow pace, there were still enough twists and turns in Crossed to make me want to read the last novel in the trilogy. I don't know if I'll actually read it or just look up some spoilers online to see what happens.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.
FTC: received from Flamingnet
Release Date: November 1, 2011

2011/Dutton/384 pages.

Matched by Ally Condie

Summary:

In the Society, Officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die.

Cassia has always trusted their choices. It's hardly any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one... until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's ever known and a path no one else has ever dared follow - between perfection and passion.

Matched is a story for right now and storytelling with the resonance of a classic. (from the book jacket)

Review:

I was so excited to read Matched - I love dsytopias, I love love triangles and I heard a lot of good things about this book. However, while I liked Matched, I wasn't totally blown away, which disappointed me.

What I love about dystopias is the superb world-building. I always have to give kudos to an author who can successfully create a new world that feels real. I think it's much harder than writing a book that takes place here and now. I thought Ally Condie did a good job building Cassia's world. I know a lot of people on GoodReads are saying that Matched copied The Giver, but I don't really think so. Many dsytopias are going to be similar and have similar themes, and I don't think Matched was super close to The Giver.

I would hate to live in the Society. You literally have no choice of anything. No choice of clothes, of food (I thought this was really weird), no choice of job, and no choice of husband/wife. Everything is decided for you based on your personality and what the Officials think. What was also really interesting was that the culture was very limited. There were a bunch of "Hundred" lists. So Officials went through history and picked a Hundred Songs, a Hundred Poems, a Hundred Historical Events and that's it. Anything else of literary, historical, artistic or musical importance was tossed away. Can you imagine only having a hundred books to choose from?

Going beyond the set up of Matched, things got weaker. The character development and plot development definitely needed some work, in my opinion. I liked Cassia but she didn't really do anything the whole book. A lot of it is her thinking about some illegal poems she had read, which is nice and all, but can be boring. There were a lot of times that I was annoyed with her character. And one reason why was because of the love triangle. I usually enjoy reading love triangles but this one was not well done at all. Xander and Ky, her two potential choices, were too similar to make such a love triangle plausible. Xander was the nice boy next door who she was Matched with and Ky is the nice boy next door that has some secrets. So pretty similar and it's obvious who Cassia is drawn to. The "relationship" (or lack thereof) between Cassia and Ky did not develop well at all. I didn't really see what the appeal and then suddenly they were in love, which confused me a lot. For a book that moved slowly action-wise you would think there would be a lot of character development.

All in all, I did enjoy reading Matched, if for the world building and nothing else. I still haven't decided if I'm reading the sequel, Crossed. If Cassia and Ky become better developed and the plot picks up I might give it a chance.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

FTC: birthday gift.

2010/Dutton/366 pages.