Ally Condie – Crossed (4/5)

Series: Matched #2

Cover:

Genre: Post-apocalyptic

This is the book for you if you like:

- The second half of Matched (if you preferred the first half, chances are you won’t like this sequel at all)
- Books about feelings instead of about actions

Summary: (from author’s website)

Chasing down an uncertain future, Cassia makes her way to the Outer Provinces in pursuit of Ky—taken by the Society to his sure 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.

Thoughts on covers:

As with Matched, all the covers I could find where exactly this one, or a variation on it. I like this one slightly less than the first one, but only because I thought the green was prettier.

Title:

I love the title. It fits the story perfectly; if you’ve read the book, you’ll see that the title is the perfect summation of the book.

Characters:

There are a couple of new characters in this book, most notably Eli and Indie. I really liked Eli, while Indie remained more of a wildcard; I think she was meant to be that, though, so it didn’t bother me. Other than that, this book didn’t change my view on the most important characters, Ky and Cassia. I think Cassia is very strong, and she’s continuing her development that she started in Matched. Ky is this solid, quiet rock, that is always there to change the course of everyone around him.

Setting:

Fleeing from Society, both Ky and Cassia try to find their way, separately, in this world. Because of this, the setting is way grittier than the setting of Matched; no perfect illusions this time, just the harsh reality of the world out there.

General story:

I definitely liked this one way more than I liked Matched. Instead of just Cassia’s point of view, we get both Cassia’s and Ky’s, which I thought brought a lot more to the story. And while Xander isn’t really that much in this book, a big reveal about him and his character is known, which makes me look forward to how this triangle will continue in Reached.

The writing is really beautiful, Condie has a way with words that really grabs me. Like in Matched, poetry is a recurrent theme and I really love the emotion that it brings to this story. While it’s the story of Ky’s and Cassia’s travels, not much really happens, but all the more is felt.

The thing that really kept this book from getting five stars was that there was no world building at all. In Matched it was subtle, but it was there, but in Crossed we’re only presented with the information we already got and we get nothing new. I think the Society is a really intriguing concept and I’m disappointed we didn’t get to see more about it.

Will I read the other instalments in this series?
Definitely!

Overall rating: 4/5