Crossed (Matched #2)- Ally Condie

Crossed, the second book in the Matched dystopian series, picks up where we left off, with Cassia off in search of Ky, Ky’s life in question in the Outer Providences, and with the beginnings of a rebellion against the dictatorial Society.

Like with Shades of Grey, one of the biggest issues is that I don’t buy into the main premise. Why would the Society force these things on people? None of it makes any sense. This shouldn’t surprise me though, because the Society is not the main plotline of the book. That is of course, the love triangle.  As with Matched, Crossed’s biggest focus is on the Ky-Xander-Cassia issue, instead of on the more interesting rebellion against the Society. This rubs me the wrong way, and is my biggest complaint about the series. It’s clearly geared towards the Twilight crowd, but with even less of an outside plot and not very interesting writing (Cassia and Ky love each other SO MUCH! But Cassia might also love Xander! But Ky and Cassia write and recite poems to each other! They love art! The Society doesn’t like it! These seem to be the things that the author most wants us to focus on). 

It is also really irritating how the author constantly refers to things that the reader doesn’t know about.  Instead of keeping me invested, like it does with most other books, it frustrates me. When half of the book keeps referring to “Xander’s secret” like it’s some life changing thing with the stupidest, most obvious explanation being a “big reveal,” I am not interested, I am annoyed.

Yet, here I am, finishing the book in mere days. I don’t understand how this happened.  

2- for some reason I still flew through this book, despite all the complaints. I still want to know where we’re going to end up in this series. Don’t ask me why because I don’t know. I think it’s because I am a sucker for any YA book about a dystopic future.  I’m still not in a hurry to read the next one though.  

Matched- Ally Condie

Matched is a young adult/borderline children’s book that wants very badly to be either The Giver or The Hunger Games. Set in a futuristic world remarkably similar to that of Lois Lowry’s The Giver, all of our free will as a human race has essentially vanished. Calories and food are predetermined, jobs are assigned based on relative strengths, and romantic relationships are determined by the appropriate match of personalities. Cassia is 17 and headed to her Matching Banquet, and to her delight, is matched with her best friend Xander, in a match that everyone classifies as perfect. But the next day, just for a split second while reviewing her “courtship guidelines” the face of another boy shows up, and she knows him too: Ky. So, the question becomes, somewhat predictably, does she go with what is planned and reliable: Xander, or what may actually be her perfect, but unauthorized Match, Ky?

First, let me say for the record that I liked Matched. I like the concept, I like the main character, I like the future world. I was annoyed by the love triangle. Where Divergent was clearly a Hunger Games wannabe and I could not have cared less, this one is more obviously trying to target the audiences of mainstream teen books with its teen love triangle. I wish the author had focused more on the world around the characters, the choices Cassia and her family do have to make that aren’t already predetermined, and the ethics of having a Society that makes your life easier but steals your free will. It’s an interesting concept. I wanted to know more about it.

All in all, a good book and a good use of my time overall. I’ll be reading the sequel eventually, I’m sure. This one was somewhere between a 3 and a 4 for me. But in order from favorite to least favorite of the recent dystopic fiction trilogies, my ranking would be: Hunger Games, Divergent, Matched.