February Book

Okay guys.

I did it.

I finished "Crossed"

Ugh.

That's my overall feeling of this book. I am really sorry if you liked this book, because I am about to trash it. Maybe you could try to convince me otherwise. But.. um.. I hated it. I can't really even write a very eloquent review. I am just going to bullet point. Also.. there WILL be spoilers. So don't read this if you intend to read the book.

• This felt like a filler book. Nothing but a filler. Like she wanted to write 3 books instead of 2 but didn't have much to say so she just filled it with walking and fluff and air and crap.
• Someone remind me again why she chose Ky over Xander? I feel like it's the opposite of Katniss choosing Peeta. Katniss chose the good, sweet, patient, loving, perfect guy over the hot-headed, mysterious, guy. It's flip-flopped here and it feels all wrong. I didn't like her choosing Ky in the first book and I hated it even more in the second. I feel like they really don't even know anything about each other but since their love is forbidden, it's all exciting. But the way she is constantly thinking about Xander, I feel like he is who she should really be with. It's driving me mad.
• What's with the creepy Ky and Indie side affair? Made me dislike him even more.
• Seriously.. did they need to be WALKING for half the book? Just walking to find each other? I feel like that could have encompassed one chapter.
• I didn't like have the book from both of their points of view in which they flipped back and forth so quickly. Maybe I am just slow. But sometimes I would forget who's point of view I was reading from. I didn't feel like the characters had separate voices. They were the same person just narrating a different life. It was confusing. Made the characters feel weak because it didn't seem like two different people.
• I feel like they rushed through the beginning of the story- they could have explained a heck of a lot more about Cassia's current situation, why she was even there, and what had happened in between. Then they drug the whole "walking" part out of 9 years. Then suddenly they found the rising and BAM, the book was done. Rushed beginning and end and terribly long middle. I feel like she wrote this book in 10 seconds.
• I feel like Ky and Cassia being together again should have been so happy and exciting but of course, Ky is all weird and moody and Cassia doesn't know how to talk to him and it wasn't even fun for them to be reunited.
• Why, for the love of all things holy, did Cassia and Ky split up on the way to the rising? They could have easily traveled on foot together. It was a forced dramatic moment. 
• There were a few important details we found out. Like more about Ky's past and the big secret about Xander. But other than that, there was nothing big or important that happened until the end when they finally reached the rising. But even that was incredibly anticlimactic. We still know so little about everything.
• I teach a reading class. We spend a whole unit learning about plot structure. In fact, we use this picture throughout the unit:
  
  
  Now let me tell you, this book didn't follow that. Rising action.. was that when they were walking? Was the climax when Cassia and Ky were reunited? Or when they smashed the tubes in cave? Or when they made it to the rising? None of those seemed exciting. Falling action? Resolution? There wasn't enough time. They spent too much time walking. I really feel like there was no real story told at all. It's funny because I always tell my kids how boring a story would be if it didn't follow the narrative arch. Now I have an example to show them.
• I would have rather had some of the book from Xander's perspective. We could see what was going on back home and hear some of his thought process. And it would have taken us out of that dang canyon for a few minutes. I can't believe the entire book took place in basically the same place.
•  It's nice that we get to see so many of the main characters thoughts, but they never freaking say them outloud and it drives me cray-cray. Say what you are thinking guys!
• I didn't like Ky and Cassia together in the first book, but I still think Condie did a good job of building a feasible relationship between them during that one. Their love was garbage in the second book.
• I felt like she got a lot of comments about how her first book was trying to copy Hunger Games (and The Giver as well) so she tried to make the sequel as un-Hunger Games as possible. But it didn't work. It was just so boring.
• We still know basically nothing about the Society and the history of this world nor anything about the rising. I can't feel very invested in this story because I know nothing of the history or of the future. We don't really even know what the rising is wanting to do! Get rid of The Scoiety? The "Enemy" (which is something they mentioned a million times and never explained)?
• Someone needs to tell Ally Condie that having 3 books in a series doesn't make you cool if one of them isn't actually a book.

Alright, I will stop being mean. I was just very let down. I will read the third one though. Maybe I am setting myself up for more frustration but I have heard the third one is actually good and she writes the "rising" in an interesting way that doesn't copy the Hunger Games, which I was worried about. Basically, if you haven't started the series. Don't do it.