Star "Crossed" Lovers

After a couple of years of waiting for installments of the Hunger Games trilogy, I found myself devoid of dystopian young adult romance novels. Then I found Matched by Ally Condie at the Literary Life Bookstore, and I was back in business. Yes, it's derivative--a young woman finds herself torn between her best friend and her soulmate, neither of whom happen to be a vampire or a werewolf, and both of whom love her. Also, it takes place in a futuristic society that used to be North America, where the government watches every move of its citizens.

Still. I enjoyed some of the more original parts of the book, and I appreciated some of the imagery, as well as writing that pushed beyond the ordinary. So I've been looking forward to finding out what happens to Cassia, Ky and Xander in the second of the trilogy, Crossed.

At the end of Matched, Cassia has decided to go after Ky. Ky is not a full citizen of the Society, and he does not enjoy the same rights and priveleges that Cassia does. Some of the themes that run through this book include the control and oppression of people, inequality of rights based on arbitrary reasons, abuse of power, and most central to this book, the nature of love, honesty and commitment. Ky and Cassia are together; now they must decide how honest they can be with each other, how much they trust each other, and how they will deal with their differences. I appreciated the deeper-than-usual look at how infatuation matures into a different kind of connection, more than is usually found in a young adult novel.

Much of the book takes place in the Carving. I assumed, as I began reading, that this was the Grand Canyon, but since finding that the author is from Utah, I'm thinking something more like Canyonlands. The book is half love letter to the beauty of the landscape, which I enjoyed.

There is also a bit of reflection on grief over the loss of loved ones, including the confusing mix of pain, anger and guilt. Ky has lost a lot in his lifetime, and he's not always clear on how he should feel about it all.

The story felt both a little drawn out, and somehow at the same time like there were things we were supposed to understand that I didn't feel were explained quite enough--the characters are often coming to understandings of each other that I'm not clear on. I'm curious if this was originally one longer novel, and the publisher said "let's make it a trilogy." On the other hand, the ending seemed perfectly planned out as the end to the second of a three-book series.

It's not The Hunger Games, but I'm enjoying it and looking forward to seeing what happens in the final installment, whenever that comes out! And if you need more, a friend suggested Divergent, by Veronica Roth. I might have to give it a try.