Crossed (Book 2 of Matched trilogy)

Hi, my name is Katie and I am a Young Adult Dystopian Novel addict.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, I can focus on the review and not on explaining why a 32-year-old PhD academic is reading books written for 13-15 year old girls.

I read Matched this summer.  Wait, no.  I tore through Matched this summer in record time.  Immediately sad that the sequel wasn’t out, I pre-ordered it on Amazon and then forgot about it.  But then it showed up in my mailbox (I love the Amazon pre-order feature) and I was so excited I started it that night.

It’s the middle book of a trilogy, and like so many trilogies before it (I’m looking at you Star Wars and Lord of the Rings) it doesn’t live up to the first.  It’s what I think of as the “middle child syndrome”, but in this case it is a book not a child.  Its got some of the good stuff from the book before, but is trying to exert its independence.  Yet, it isn’t a standalone book, so it can’t be independent. Plus, it has to set the stage for the last book.  The “thunder” book.  It just sort of….is.

There was way more love and love drama in this book, but there was a whole lot less action.  In fact, it didn’t really get good until the last 100 pages or so which were clearly just intended to get readers excited for the last book.   Throughout the book, Xander is present in name only, with constant allusions to his “secret” that Ky knows but won’t tell Cassie because he thinks she’ll pick Xander over him though.

I finished Matched really loving Ky and Cassie.  I finished Crossed thinking that they are both weak and not very realistic characters.  I was not impressed with this one, but I’m still going to read the last one.  Hoping for the “thunder” I guess you could say.