Crossed by Ally Condie

I somehow managed to finish reading Crossed by Ally Condie over the weekend and I've been putting this post off because I have such mixed feelings about it. When I posted about Matched, I said how much I liked all of the characters, and by the end of Crossed, Xander was the only one I still liked...Probably because he was barely in the book at all.

 

Crossed's plot consists of Ky being sent to the Outer Provinces with a group of other Aberrations as a "decoy" against the Enemy and Cassia waltzing onto an air shop to the Outer Provinces with a group of female Aberrations so she can find Ky. Ky escapes with two other boys, Vick and Eli. When Cassia arrives two days after his escape, she heads into the Carving (where Ky went) with another girl named Indie. The whole thing just drags on. And on. And on. It's not necessarily boring, but it was way too drawn out.

 

The chapters alternate between Ky's point of view and Cassia's point of view. I didn't really care for that. There were times when I forgot whose chapter I was reading and it became confusing, so I would have to go back and reread it all again.

 

The book got two significant reactions out of me.

 

First, I was REALLY upset when I read that the blue pills do not help people SURVIVE if they get lost, but rather they slow them down until the Society can find them. Two blue pills will kill you. Honestly, I was distraught over this news. Especially since I had just mentioned what all the pills did in the post about Matched and clearly, my information was wrong. Not that I could have known that then, but still. It bothered me.

 

The second reaction was how much I hated Cassia and Ky towards the end of the book. I just wanted to bang my head into the wall. Ky risked his life to escape from the Outer Provinces so he could somehow make his way back to the Society to find Cassia. Meanwhile, Cassia knowingly puts herself in danger so she can go to the Outer Provinces to find him. And what do these two decide after all the trouble they've gone through?

 

Ky can risk death for Cassia, but he can't join the Rising (rebellion) for her. (At least not until the very end of the book when he changes his mind.)

 

And Cassia...Well. Read this passage from the book and you'll see where my frustration with her comes from.

 

"You're in love with Xander," I say, my voice too hard, too cruel.
Indie doesn't deny it. Xander is the kind of person an Aberration can never have. A golden boy, as close to perfect as they come in the Society.
He's not her Match, though. He's mine.
With Xander, I could have a family, a good job, be loved, be happy, live in a Borough with clean streets and neat lives. With Xander, I would be able to do the things I always thought I would.
But with Ky, I do things I never thought I could.
I want both.

 

After realizing that Indie is in love with Xander (even though she's never met him), Cassia's reaction is, "He's not her Match, though. He's mine." She's possessive. Over a boy she didn't want. She chose Ky over him. What right does she have to be jealous now? What right does she have to want BOTH boys? It's not fair to either of them.

 

And then I read this. It made me sympathize a bit more with Cassia, just because I could relate to it.

 

I close my eyes. I love Ky. But I don't understand him. He won't let me reach him. I have made mistakes, too, I know it, but I am tired of chasing him through canyons and out onto plains and stretching out my hand only to have him take it some times and not others.

 

I've been there. With my ex. Sometimes it's not enough to love someone. Especially if they keep you at a distance and never truly let you get close to them. When they hide things from you all the time. When you never know what they're thinking, or how they'll react and you keep trying to get through to them, but you can't. So maybe it's understandable that she's not fulfilled by Ky towards the end of the book, but I still think she's incredibly selfish.

 

At the end of Crossed, Cassia is about to meet with someone. You're led to believe it's Ky. I'm going to say right here and now, for the record, that it's Xander. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

 

It's strange, I really thought the sequel would be better. Usually, with trilogies, they improve because you get more information and the story becomes more complex. You do learn more information in Crossed, but if you cut out all the filler, it would only be enough for a chapter or two. It wasn't a bad book, it held my interest, but I think Matched was better. All Crossed managed to do was destroy two very likable characters. I hope Xander falls in love with Indie in the third book (or any other girl he comes across) because Cassia doesn't deserve him.