Book Review: Crossed

I finished reading Crossed by Allie Condie a few days ago - the sequel to Matched which made such a big splash a while back. I enjoyed Matched (though I had a few reservations about it - mainly I found it hard to believe that she would give up a life with her childhood sweetheart to chase after someone she barely knew, but that's neither here nor there), so I was excited to read the sequel.

Overall, I quite enjoyed Crossed. I read it in two days and was annoyed when my lunch break ended with only 50 pages or so left (always a good sign). The plot twists were interesting, and it was cool to see more of the world outside the Society's perfectly controlled cities. The characters (Ky and Cassia particularly) were developed to a higher degree, and we got to learn more of Ky's backstory (and a bit of Xander's too).

It suffers a bit from being the middle book in a trilogy though. Without giving any spoilers, a lot happens but I finished it and felt like the overarching plot hadn't actually progressed a whole lot. Maybe the third book will prove me wrong, but it ended and I felt like the characters were still in the exact same situation as before. I can recognize why this is, but I can't explain it in any detail without HUGE SPOILERS so I'll refrain. Here's my attempt at explaining it in no detail at all: I felt like Condie's choice of where to end the book played a big role in why I was left with that sense of non-progression. If she had ended it just a bit sooner, or tweaked it a little, I would have found it a more satisfying ending.

Now for some miscellaneous thoughts. I'm pretty sure Ky is the sanest one out of our batch of main characters. I was glad that Condie didn't feel the need to raise the stakes of Cassia's love triangle by having Ky pressure her into anything more than kissing. (I do find it a little amusing that neither one of them even considers sex an option, but then I guess I can chalk that up to their upbringing in the Society.) I hope we see a lot more of Xander in book 3, because in this love triangle business Ky hasn't really had much competition, and even though I really like his character, I am still a little hung up on the issue that I had in Matched mentioned above.

Anyway, despite all my little nitpicks, I did like the book and thought it was worth reading.

Have any of you read it? What did you think?