Review: Crossed by Ally Condie

Crossed by Ally Condie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Synopsis from Goodreads:

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 he 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.

Book 2 in the Matched series

I loved this.
It was sweeping and desperate and harsh, but also a very clever and powerful dystopian novel.

At the end of Matched Ky and Cassia were seperated and Ky was sent to the outer provences to work as punishment. In Crossed Ky and Cassia both struggle to get back to each other in the middle of a war zone. Ky is trapped in a marshland, guarded by the military and is constantly under fire, but he is also so determinedly looking for a plan to escape and get back to the Society, and Cassia is desperately seeking a way to get out and search for where they have taken Ky.


Through the descriptions of the scenery and the action, we can tell that Ky and Cassia are getting nearer and nearer to finding each other, and the tension builds, and the story gets more and more dramatic as they get closer to each other. I loved the alternating chapters as we get to catch up with what is happening to the other one, and throughout all that happens to them, how they almost give up hope. They meet up with other characters along the way, all of them seeking something, and all just trying to survive.


I really liked that we got to see more of the Society from the outside. Outside of the control of having what and how much you eat, where you go, what you can do, and even having your thoughts and dreams monitored. Ky and Cassia treasure their scraps of forbidden poetry, and enjoy the freedom of being able to read and write whatever they like. They want to be free to love each other, and I felt the passion and determination between them.


I still have so many unanswered questions about the resistance movement, and I have no idea who should be trusted. This is definitely a middle book, as the action is not much further advanced at the end of book 2, and there is still no resolution, but I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and experiencing the pain, the loss, the hope and the heartbreak of this epic journey along with these great characters. It is exciting, fast-paced and there is a constant sense of being in danger. They are always discovering new things and dealing with new problems, and I was sorry when it ended. Overall- not as great as Matched but still pretty amazing! Bring on book 3!


Rest of the series:

Book 1- Matched

Book 3- Due out November 2012