Publish date: 2011
Source: Library (ebook)
"In search of a future that may not exist and faced with the decision of who to share it with, Cassia journeys to the Outer Provinces in pursuit of Ky - taken by the Society to his certain death - only to find that he has escaped, leaving a series of clues in his wake.
Cassia's quest leads her to question much of what she holds dear, even as she finds glimmers of a different life across the border. But as Cassia nears resolve and certainty about her future with Ky, an invitation for rebellion, an unexpected betrayal, and a surprise visit from Xander - who may hold the key to the uprising and, still, to Cassia's heart - change the game once again. Nothing is as expected on the edge of Society, where crosses and double crosses make the path more twisted than ever."
I read Matched a while back and enjoyed it, although it was not in my favorites of the dystopians I read last year (Delirium, Divergent, and Birthmarked win that award). I was looking forward to read the sequel, despite mixed reviews. My library does ebook lending, so I grabbed it for my kindle Thursday night and read it over a couple days. When I finished, I was basically just...disappointed.
Even though I was overall disappointed, there were a couple things I enjoyed while reading. The first is definitely Condie's writing style. Like in Matched, the prose is rather poetic and enjoyable to read. There were also some plot points that were interesting enough to keep reading the book, like a certain character having a secret. It's mentioned early and I wanted to keep reading to find out what it was. Mentions of secrets will always keep me reading.
Unfortunately, the one word that comes to mind when I think of Crossed is boring. I was just bored through most of it, but not quite bored enough to DNF it. Everything seemed to move extremely slowly and even after finishing it, I'm not quite sure what the point of the novel was. Seemed to be just filler for book three, sadly. Another thing I didn't like was the dual narrative of both Cassia and Ky. Matched was only from Cassia's POV and I don't like that this one was different. I need my parallelism within a series! I can handle dual narratives if the style is distinct between the two, but they were exactly the same. I often forgot whose chapter it was and had to check for character names to remember.
At this point, I'm not sure if I'll read book three. This one was just not enough to continue my interest in Cassia's story and there are still many, many unanswered questions, some of which I think could have been addressed in Crossed. Thoughts?
Even though I was overall disappointed, there were a couple things I enjoyed while reading. The first is definitely Condie's writing style. Like in Matched, the prose is rather poetic and enjoyable to read. There were also some plot points that were interesting enough to keep reading the book, like a certain character having a secret. It's mentioned early and I wanted to keep reading to find out what it was. Mentions of secrets will always keep me reading.
Unfortunately, the one word that comes to mind when I think of Crossed is boring. I was just bored through most of it, but not quite bored enough to DNF it. Everything seemed to move extremely slowly and even after finishing it, I'm not quite sure what the point of the novel was. Seemed to be just filler for book three, sadly. Another thing I didn't like was the dual narrative of both Cassia and Ky. Matched was only from Cassia's POV and I don't like that this one was different. I need my parallelism within a series! I can handle dual narratives if the style is distinct between the two, but they were exactly the same. I often forgot whose chapter it was and had to check for character names to remember.
At this point, I'm not sure if I'll read book three. This one was just not enough to continue my interest in Cassia's story and there are still many, many unanswered questions, some of which I think could have been addressed in Crossed. Thoughts?
