Crossed, Ally Condie

I finished Crossed, by Ally Condie, this morning. It is the sequel to her novel Matched, which I read with my sixth graders this spring. Matched is about a dystopian society in which the government (they just call it "The Society") controls all of the important decisions in a person's life. The title comes from the Society's "Match Banquet," in which it matches its citizens, at the age of 17, to their future spouses. I won't give all the back story that's in Matched - read it yourself! - but Crossed obviously picks up where it left off. Here's a quick trailer for Matched: 

We find Cassia and Ky both at work in the Outer Provinces, in search of The Rising - a group of rebels that are determined to overthrow the Society. The novel alternates between Cassia's and Ky's point of view. Initially, they are separated and are determined to find eachother. Ultimately, they do, and they find the Rising together.

Cassia is still matched to Xander, though, and some of her friends in the Outer Provinces know a secret about him that she isn't privy to. Xander comes to visit her once yet is discouraged by the fact that her heart is still with Ky. I was so shocked when I learned Xander's secret - I can't wait to see how Cassia reacts to learning his secret  in the next, and final, novel in the trilogy.

Overall, this book was a little slow and relatively dull. The situation surrounding Ky and Cassia's journey seemed like it would have lent itself to a lot more adventure and action, but the bulk of the novel was about their feelings and longings to know the Rising and be together - it was, like I said, kind of dull.

However, I really enjoyed Matched, and Crossed ends in a way that I know the third and final novel in the trilogy will be exciting and thrilling, like the first one was. So, I'd still recommend reading it. The third book is titled Reached, and comes out in November. I read this article from the author's website, and it says that the final book will be told from Xander's perspective. Reached is definitely on my to-read list!