The Worst Books Ever Written, Installment 1: Crossed

The world is full of wonderfully brilliant novels that delight the soul. I've decided to pay homage to books that are quite the opposite—more specifically, the Worst Books Ever Written. I'll be uploading a blog post every so often that features one of my least favorite books, in addition to my usual blogging. First up is Crossed, by Ally Condie. I challenged myself to finish this book, just to see if I had the tenacity. I managed to read it cover to cover, and have regretted it since. Crossed is the second of three books known as the Matched trilogy. Matched is another run-of-the-mill YA dystopian/sci-fi series. And where there’s a dystopian young adult novel, there’s a cliche adolescent love triangle. Matched's triad of teenage puppy love features Cassia, Xander, and Ky. In the future world of the Society, citizens are “matched” with their soul mates at seventeen years old. Cassia and Xander, long-time best friends, are matched together. But as Cassia views the information for her Match, another name—Ky Markham—flicks across the screen. Who will she choose? Ooohh, the tension! Ugh. It’s basically The Hunger Games, but less mainstream. Now, I read Matched about a year ago, and I have to admit, it was a decent book. Well, maybe not decent—more like vaguely interesting. Until, however, the end of the book. Obviously, Cassia had chosen Ky (I cannot stress how unbelievably obvious that was) and decided that the Society was evil, thus causing the two to become fugitives. They were both carted off to different, separate labor facilities surrounding the Society as punishment for their retaliation. Crossed begins in those two facilities, written from both Cassia and Ky’s point of view (I very rarely enjoy a book with duel POVs, by the way). My biggest issue with this book is that the author used the same plot devices that she used in Matched. The most prominent example of this takes place at, once again, the end of the book. At Crossed’s falling action, Ky and Cassia are separated again, sent to different areas and facilities that belong to the Society’s resistance organization. Sound familiar? That scenario is nearly identical to the ending of Matched! Besides the annoying reappearing plot devices, Crossed was mind-numbingly boring, with little to no believable action or tension. The love scenes were cheesy, and the characters were unrealistic and dull—I honestly didn’t care who lived or died. All in all, this book should not have been published. I didn’t even read the third book, Reached—Crossed ruined everything about the series for me. Leave this novel on the shelf!

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