Wednesday 5 June 2013

Book Review: Crossed by Ally Condie

Before greeting you guys, let me just say that...well, long time no write a blog post! Lol, so what though, Like you guys even care, right? -_- LOL

ANYWAYS....

HI !!!!!

After many months of gritting teeth and fighting to pull through every chapter of the Matched sequel, I've finally finished it, and I don't even have much to say. Crossed was just simply...Okay. It just made you feel that it couldn't end here though. And so at least we have 'Reached' to look forward to, unless you all have already read the final book...then your Matched world has probably already ended huh? Well, we still have the movie to look forward to :D lol.

                              Crossed (Matched, #2)


After a long time of being separated from her true love, Cassia finally journeys to the Outer Provinces in search of Ky. When Cassia arrives at the camp where she assumes Ky is staying at, she soon finds out that Ky has left the camp, leaving only one choice for Cassia which is to find him. She journeys with her roommate Indie and they soon become close friends. During Cassia's journey and after she finally finds Ky, she experiences many things such as betrayal, the Rising, and many secrets and memories. She learns more about the Rising, and soon sides with the mysterious rebellion against the corrupt society.

Can I first just say that I'm still a little unfamiliar to these new characters in the novel like for example Eli, Indie, Hunter and Vick? Like, although they played some certainly important roles in the book, it just seemed like the book was all about Ky and Cassia, which of course it was. I'm not such a fan of Ky and Cassia, and I much prefer her with Xander, but during this novel, I was able to learn a lot more about Ky and honestly, he really did won me in this novel and I think I can get used to him. While I was reading, I noticed a lot of determination in Cassia and more of it than in Matched. I think I honestly prefer this novel than to Matched, because Cassia totally shows us her true self and how brave and bold she really is. I also liked how Ally wrote 2 points of views for this novel from Cassia and Ky, so we wouldn't just have pictured Ky as an awkward weird dude who is just liked by Cassia. He really did display himself as a character in this novel.

So I guess I'd give this novel a 6 out of 10 stars. Although there was a whole lot of poetry, and you should know that the only poetry that I actually can tolerate are the rhyming ones, I still thought the novel was really sentimental and I really felt the separation and loneliness that the 2 characters experienced when they weren't together. For me though, it lacked a whole lot of action. I know that just because it's dystopian, doesn't mean that it's full of fighting and stuff like that, but I really expected some audacious action to really thrill me like Divergent did. It was really plain when it came to thrills and it was just filled with sloppy romance that soon became really aggravating to me, I mean, get a room!

Obviously the themes in my opinion are courage, determination...Blah Blah Blah. I really wished that Ally was a little more creative instead of so straight forward when writing this novel. I mean, there are only 3 books in the whole series, so might as well make all the books ones to remember. even the Twilight books had more thrill and excitement. Thinking about the novel, I learned a whole lot more about the main characters though. Of course I was real bummed to know there weren't a lot of Xander parts, but a lot of the memories that Ky and Cassia narrated really interested me a whole lot. The poetry was sweet and sometimes they were real boring and didn't make sense (but most poetry doesn't make sense anyways). More poetry started to hit the pages and then I just became plain uninterested in even reading them. There was also this thing called 'the Rising' which to me was just super overrated. They were just constantly talking about it 'The Rising this' and 'The Rising that' and 'I want to join the Rising' and 'I don't want to join the Rising' and ergghh! And as soon as they finally entered the Rising (JEEZ! THANK YOU!), bad things happen. They send Cassia back to the freaking society to work and they send Indie and Ky to work at some sort of air ship together...I mean, seriously!? CASSIA + KY NOT CASSIA - KY...NOOO!!! D:
I knew the Rising was bad news! LOL. Although they seriously need to make a novel about the Rising, I'd surely read it.

My favorite character was honestly Ky. Yeah, he lacked emotion and had his plain jane going on, but he was really considerate and thoughtful (despite leaving his partners in the battlefield to die), and he really did show his love for Cassia and it wasn't just a one person love stand..lol. While reading this novel, I can only say that I imagined the setting and scene to be caves and forests like that.  They did spend most of the time camping in forests and caves and in an old house. I know that this is the worst I can come up with, but for now let's just say that the beautiful settings that the characters of Crossed had abided in was beautiful caves and forests...(:


(This picture is of the Melissani Cave in Greece. This picture is from izi-travel.com. No copyright intended)

Favorite quote(s) from the Novel:

“In the end you can't always choose what to keep. You can only choose how you let it go.” 

“Forgetting lets you live without the pain for a moment but remembering hits hard.” 

“Everyone has something of beauty about them.” 

“I didn't know all that was inside of him, either. I thought I did, but people run deep and complicated like rivers, hold their shape and are carved upon like stone.”

-Lia <3

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