Book Review – ‘Crossed’ by Ally Condie

An adventure in the rocky wild that plateaued…

Genre: Y/A, Dystopian, Science Fiction

No. of pages: 367

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 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 just don’t know about this one. I enjoyed the survival aspect, and their quest. How they were out in The Carving, the wilderness, and had to rely on a different set of skills to survive. But the tone of the narrative was nearly anesthetising. I found myself speed reading through a large chunk of the book because the words weren’t grabbing me enough.

I enjoyed how we got to see more depth from Cassia and Ky – and this book is told in dual perspectives.. I’m still a little lost in to why Allie Condie changed up the format of her storytelling. It didn’t add too much to the plot, other than to let us know all the characters keep secrets.

It is an interesting story, but the delivery is, I hate to say it, bland. The hints of poetry we got in ‘Matched’ are a lot heavier in ‘Crossed,’ to the point where I was bored of them. I’m not a big fan of poetry, especially in YA. Poetry is compact, meaningful and something to be pondered over, where YA is punchy, fast and riding on the waves of current trends; so it felt jarring to have the two collide in the narrative. It is very symbolic and carries a romantic theme about life and rebellion – but I didn’t feel that. As soon as I reached the italicised letters I skipped down to the end.

The ending was okay – a bit of a cliff-hanger that has enticed me enough to read ‘Reached’ – the final in the trilogy. Luckily enough, these books are quick and easy to digest. I just wish the writing style was punchier and the pacing faster. I don’t find it melodic or engaging – merely interesting. Let’s hope the final book really shines, otherwise this series is going to seriously bomb.

A lot of the questions I had in ‘Matched’ went unanswered, and even more are raised in ‘Crossed’ – so it’s set up the finale for a doozy – and I really want to find out what is going on in this society, as well as the fates of Cassia, Ky and Xander.

As a middle book in a trilogy, I was expecting to be a little weaker than it’s predecessor, but it’s about on par – the character development is much better, as is the plot, but pacing felt really slow. I wanted a lot more to happen in this book. And at least get some resolution. I didn’t feel any satisfaction when I reached the last page. Just that I needed to read ‘Reached’ to get some answers.

Overall feeling: fun, but flatlined.

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