Twerp by Mark Goldblatt 
Review: Crossed by Ally Condie
“In the end you can’t always choose what to keep. You can only choose how you let it go.”
Before I start on Crossed, a little bit of background on my thoughts on Matched, the first book in this trilogy. I read a lot of mixed reviews for Matched, and things that other reviewers disliked about it were things that I actually relished and enjoyed about the story. Condie’s writing of this dystopian world is slow paced and has a mysterious undercurrent of wrongness about the society that just builds your anticipation as to how its all going to play out. I also quite liked Cassia and could understand her reasons and motivations through the storyline overall I thought it was a very solid book and was really interested to see what happened in the sequel.
Crossed starts out in a very different place. Ky has been sent to the outer provinces and Cassia is determined to find him. I was really looking forward to their journey to one another yet the way they were brought together was just unrealistic and implausible to say the least. Cassia manages to by complete fluke hop on an airship that magically takes her to the area that Ky was sent to. And then manages to escape without any planning or difficulties even though Ky only just managed to himself and no one has survived previously??? I just couldn’t buy it.
The book is written from both Ky and Cassia’s perspective as they journey to find one another, which sounds romantic and like it would build your anticipation. Unfortunately I found it jarring and really felt that it took from the overall story instead of adding to it. Amongst the unrealistic plot is a lot of poetry and prose which I thought was quite heavy handed and instead of me feeling the love between these two, I just got irritated by it and found myself skimming over those parts. Seriously I know teenagers have a lot of angst but considering both Cassia and Ky are written as quite intelligent individuals man do they have real emo tendencies!
There are also a couple of new characters introduced into the story who journey with Ky and Cassia respectively and I’m not really sure what their purpose was other to ensure that neither of them when journeying in the middle of the desert alone. Indie in particular had a lot of promise and I’m hoping that she is explored a bit further in the final novel.
Where the first book gave you good insight into the society, Crossed delves more into those opposing the society including the Resistance which is what Cassia and Indie want to join. Finding out about the resistance and the farmers plus some of the back story into the society was what I enjoyed most about this story and I’m very interested to find out how they all play together in the final installment of the trilogy – Reached.
Overall I found this an incredibly dissapointing sequel and while I will read the series to conclusion, my expectations aren’t particularly high.
Rating 
| Author | Ally Condie |
|---|---|
| Book series | Matched: Book #2 |
| Genre | Dystopian / Young Adult |
| Publisher | Dutton Juvenile |
| Published | November 2011 |
| Source | Library |
| More |
Crossed by Ally Condie at Goodreads Crossed by Ally Condie at Amazon Crossed by Ally Condie at The Book Depository |
22 Comments:
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Badass Bookie says:
2.5 Rating? I’ve got this sitting on my shelf and while the anticipation for Matched was huge, the book was just okay. To here – Crossed wasn’t that good either…. ehhhh I dunno whether I want to read it! Thank-you for the honest review though!
Philippa says:
It was really really dissapointing. It actually made me wonder if I had built Matched up a little bit too much, I had read so many negative reviews for it. I still will finish the series – perhaps hold off until you’ve read some reviews of Reached and make the call whether to invest time in the series!
Lynn K says:
I feel your disappointment. =/ I had mixed feelings about Matched because while I enjoyed it, it took me a long time finish reading it because it felt draggy at times. For this one the pages flew past but it left me feeling unfulfilled.I really hope Reached makes up for it.
Philippa says:
Unfulfilled is definitely a good word to describe it. I’m hoping there is a really wonderful ending instore for us making up for the issues in the first 2 books!
Suz Reads says:
I agree with your comments! I was so looking forward to Matched and then was disappointed although I liked the story idea and the descriptions of the society but the characters felt a little flat to me. I read Crossed hoping for something better and found it to be ok but not great. I did like reading from both Ky and Cassia’s perspective though because it was interesting to me to see how each thought of the same events. I will read the 3rd book too but with medium expectations!
Philippa says:
Thats exactly how I’m going into the finale with quite low expectations. Hopefully we will have a pleasant surprise
Bonnie says:
I’ve heard similar reactions to this book, which is a same because I quite enjoyed Matched. I think I might wait to see reactions from the final book before I bother trying. Too many other good books to read.
Philippa says:
Thats exactly how I feel sometimes – so many good books, no time to waste on average ones
Lena Marsteller says:
I have yet to read this series… I am on the fringe because I am not sure if the dystopian part will be fully immersed in this book or not, like it has been in DIvergent,THG, and Delirium.
Philippa says:
I thought it was immersed in Matched, but not so much in this one – perhaps wait and read some reviews on the final book before deciding whether it’s worth reading!
Ana Death Duarte says:
Like you I had read mixed reviews about Matched to the point that I was postponing my reading until Crossed finally came out. I luved Mached after all, maybe for all the reasons most people disliked it, and read it in like two days, even though I have been the hell of busy recently.
I felt quite a difference – a shocking one in style – when it came to Crossed, but since I’ve read only a third of it (I had to stop reading it for a while for I had to read and review some other books for my blog in the middle), I’ve read the end is quite a cliffhanger. While I am not disliking the book, my feelings towards Crossed so far are a little mixed, but I can understand, at least up to the part I’ve read, why they act like that, for, despite being intelligent, they are still young and out of that kind of cruel but comfortable world they lived in and dealing with so much death and despair can be quite horrible… Maybe I change my mind for the good or for the bad, I just know I luved so much the book 1 and the characters that I hardly can’t wait for book 3! I still think that the different POVs were cool and kind of agonizing, but I shall have a totally formed opinion when I finish reading it and I’ll come back here and tell what my final opinion is ^ ^
Philippa says:
I would love to hear your thoughts when you’ve finished it! I’m hoping book 3 is really good to make up for how lacklustre this one was
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Thalia says:
Oh man! That’s such a low rating! I just got this book in a swap, and I was pretty on-the-fence about Matched. I guess I’ll just have to see what happens! D:
Philippa says:
Quite a few people preferred this one to Matched, I just found it a little awkward and unbelievable – but I have read some awesome Dystopians of late and it would be hard to live up to some of them!
Jolene A says:
Not a very good rating
I’ve seen a lot of up and down reviews on this book and while I really liked your review, I am thinking I need to grab this just to see on what side of the fence I will land
Philippa says:
Definitely do especially if you enjoyed Matched – quite a few bloggers preferred this book to the first so you might really like it!
Enna P. says:
I liked Matched, even though it was a little to dystopian for me, but I’m looking forward for Crossed, and thank you for your opinion on the book
Philippa says:
You may prefer this one as it isn’t quite so much of a Dystopian – hope you enjoy it!
Kris S says:
I’m sorry to hear that you didn’t enjoy this one. I just got it from the library and was looking forward to it. Hopefully I’ll enjoy it a bit more, if not, I’m still curious about what happens and will give it a try.
Philippa says:
Definitely give it a go – as I said in some of the other comments many bloggers preferred this one so you might find that too!
nurmawati djuhawan says:
well…i’m not really like cassia in “matched”…and i think i don’t really like her either in “crossed”..why she can’t choose the one whom she really love and tell the ither about he decision…