Crossed by Ally Condie

Crossed (Matched, Book 2)
by Ally Condie
November 2011
Dutton Juvenille

Rules are different outside the society.

For reasons beyond my comprehension these books continue to enjoy raging popularity.  Don't get me wrong, this is a great series.  But there are so many other wonderful dystopian young adult novels that follow a similar premise that one might think the success would be more evenly spread . . . In any case, I've finally read book two in the Matched Trilogy, which began (unsurprisingly) with Matched.  If you haven't read Matched, you should.  (Before you're the only one left on your block who hasn't.  Even the 11 year old boy next door who plays video games all day and eats dirt has read it.)

Crossed picks up close to where Matched left off.  Ky has been shipped off to who knows where and desperate to find him, Cassie takes on jobs in the outer provinces.  But before Cassie can go bounding into the wilderness in search of Ky, Xander shows up (Yes of course he's in this book.  What?  You thought the love triangle was completely resolved and tied up nicely in the first book?  Silly you.  Didn't you realize this was a trilogy?).  Cassie knows she needs to find Ky because she loves him.  But does her heart still long for her childhood friend Xander?  How does she keep them both?  And will she stay alive long enough in the wilderness to choose between them?

So many questions raised . . . that mostly went unanswered.  Crossed builds a nice bridge between Matched and what shall be the conclusion of the series.  This book takes you away from The Society and allows the characters the opportunity to get to know themselves and each other better than they were able previously.  Having gotten this far I will definitely be reading the last book in this series.  But if you haven't already, I do recommend that you try other dystopian novels such as Divergent or Legend in addition to the Matched Trilogy.  (Even if the other books don't have the same visually rockin' covers that these books do.)

The Matched Trilogy
Matched
Crossed
Reached (TBR November 2012)