Crossed

Crossed by Ally Condie

For some reason I could have sworn that I blogged about the first book in this trilogy, Matched, but apparently I didn't. I looked back through my old blog posts and turned up nothing....maybe my skills are lacking. I don't know.

So a brief synopsis of Matched. 

Matched introduces us to Cassia, Xander, and Ky who live in this futuristic society where there are relatively no choices or decisions left to the people living within the society; they all operate within strict guidelines. Cassia is okay with this but often wonders what would happen if they are allowed to do more.

Everyone performs the job that they would most excel at and everyone tries to do what is good for the Society.

It's very big-brother-esque as the Society is always listening/watching/keeping tabs on its citizens.

Cassia attends her banquet where she finds out who her match is. The match is the person who's data and personality are supposed to be the best one for their life partnership (marriage if you will). There is a slight error with Cassia's match though as it briefly turns out to be Ky for a hot second before it resolves itself to be Xander. Cassia wonders about this and begins to question the life she has always lived.

End for Matched. If you want to find out more about Matched, here is the AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

If you don't want Crossed spoiled for you, read no further.

An amazon summary on Crossed, "The highly anticipated second book in the Matched trilogy!

Chasing down an uncertain future, Cassia makes her way to the Outer Provinces in pursuit of Ky--taken by Society to his certain 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.  On the edge of Society, nothing is as expected, and crosses and double crosses make Cassia's path more twisted than ever.

Look for the epic series finale, REACHED!" AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

....so at the end of Matched, Cassia (who works as a sorter-someone who organizes and sees patterns in the data presented and determines different values of worth to different items) has to sort the people who work in a factory type setting. Ky is among them as he is actually a second class citizen in the Society (and aberration/anomaly). Cassia sorts Ky into the 'wrong group' and Ky is drafted to go to the Outer Provinces; a place where the Society still fights the Enemy. There is a lot of heartbreak as Cassia has doomed the person she LOVESSSSSS.

Xander is also in love with Cassia.

Ky is in love with Cassia.

HELLO?! LOVE TRIANGLE? IS THIS ORIGINAL?!?!? [/unimpressed face]

ANYWHO.

Cassia ends up getting into trouble so she'll basically go to a juvenile detention center of the future variety where she works hard and breaks a sweat and such. Essentially, they'll make her so exhausted she has to be good (is the really basic understanding of it).

Cassia meets Indie who is mischievous, clever, and hiding a secret closely. Xander does everything he can to help Cassia before she strives to go further to the outer edges of the Society so that she may be reunited with Ky.

She also wants to know more about the rebellion and possibly join the rebellion.

Xander and Ky are still madly in love with Cassia.

Basically, Crossed has a lot of survival elements and deep ponderings about art and the true intentions of the Society, the Rebellion, and the general nature of humanity. Cassia is the narrator and as such, she wonders constantly.

The narration also shifts to different narrators (SLIGHT SPOILER: but not because of horrible reasons) which was refreshing to see different perspectives.

All in all, not a terrible read, but I did get hung up by how OBSESSED Cassia was with art and poetry; how both Cassia and Ky were really. I understand that due to the nature of their lives in the Society they had very minimal exposure to new and original (or even old) pieces of art. Yet it was very hard to be understanding when the poems were constantly used as a point of reflection for both characters.

....yes.

Happy reading!