Matched: Crossed (#2)

I totally can't wait until the 3rd book comes out!

After reading 'Matched', you were probably like "What about Ky? Tell me more about this mysterious God!"

Well, in 'Crossed', that's pretty much what the whole book is about. Ky, Ky, Ky. But, shall we complain? It's what most of us were wanting. If you were Team Xander, like many were, in 'Matched', you'll be sure to switch over to Team Ky by the middle of 'Crossed'. If not, you're insane..

Basically, the whole book is about Cassia running to her lovely Ky and escaping the psychos (a.k.a Society) that are after them. But, Cassia knows what she wants and is willing to risk her own life to get it. You go girl!

It was interesting to see what lengths Cassia and Ky will go to so that they can be together. Even as they work their way to each other, Cassia's real match is planning a way to get her to notice him. I predict the next book will have some serious love triangle action going on and I can't wait for more.

Ally Condie does something very different in Crossed than she did in Matched. The first book of the series shows Cassia's gradual transformation from delighted citizen to disillusioned rebel. In the second book, we begin to see things through Ky's eyes. Quite literally, as half the book is told from his perspective. Through him, we see her grow from the ignorance and insecurities of the first story into a fearless, steady woman who will endure hunger and thirst, abandonment, exhaustion, and miles of desert to find the one she loves. It would almost be a fairy tale if it weren't so earthy and human.

And of course, it doesn't end here. Cassia has left her family to work on the outskirts of the Society in hopes that she might get close enough to Ky to find him again. With no idea where he's gone, or if he's even still alive, she follows her instincts and some twists of fate - that would look to anyone else like the worst misfortune - until she find someone who has actually seen him. Who can point to where he's gone, and even run with her part of the way. Joined by some unlikely companions (because what journey story would be complete without them), both Ky and Cassia make their own ways across an unforgiving landscape to find each other.

Along the way, we learn a lot. Most importantly, we learn just what sort of experiences have fashioned Ky, mystery-boy extraordinaire. We learn something of what makes him tick. Far from making him less interesting in the revelation, it helps to pull him out of the general "emo boy" that many other reviewers pegged him as, and give him real depth and breadth. It's absolutely worth all the desert miles to learn about him.

But we also learn about the Society's real opposition, the rebellion that's stirring and growing, not just outside its borders, but within the very capitol. And we can't help but learn a good deal more about a character Ky would prefer to forget - Xander, the other tip of the triangle. There's love and death and dirt aplenty in this book, and it's all good.

There were some touch and go moments but overall I was very happy with this book.It showed what you would do for the people you love and the people you just met.It showed how determined someone can be when they believe there is something good waiting for them.I was so excited while reading this and even during some of the slow moments Ally Condie had me wrapped around her finger.

Crossed was more action packed than Matched, although it started out a bit slow to me. I think this is mostly because it's been such seemingly long time since I've read Matched. I should've re-read or at least looked up some spoilers. But even with that, I remembered the characters and the main gist of the story.
Once I was back into Cassia's head, and the flow of the story, I didn't want to put it down. I just had to know what would happen next, and what trials she'd face next. Another thing that I liked about Crossed is that we get more into the head of Ky. He is still a pretty big mystery to me, because even though we were in his thoughts, they still seemed veiled or guarded. I did learn a lot more about him though, and I think that it helped the pacing to have him in the story.
Quite a few things surprised me in the story... how much I was able to care about some of the secondary characters that were new to the story for one. Xander also surprised me... I can't really say why, but he did something in the story and then something about his character from previous book that I didn't know and never would've guessed.
This is a great second book, and I can't wait for the conclusion!