Review: In Which Grad Student Summarizes Crossed by Ally Condi Over Pretend Margaritas

Tacky and awesome- Tortilla Flats, West Village 

Due to our conversations with Crazy Camper and you awesome readers, I have put together a version of the narration I gave CC regarding Crossed by Ally Condi. To set the scene: we are either poking around T.J. Maxx's neon workout gear or are listening to some great country music apres a dinner at goosie mama and my go-to, Tortilla Flats (it depends on the time of day). 

You say, "I liked Matched." and I respond "Me too! Too bad Crossed was such a snooze." 

"Noooo, really?" You respond. "Tell me about it."

I roll my eyes and say: "Both Ky and Cassia run around the same work camp in the Outer Provinces pining for each other. They there are only a few weeks apart but do not know it. They both make some alliances and then run away and to be fugitives in the same desert--but they do not know it. If you had to imagine seeing this from an observation platform it would be like watching mice circle each other obliviously in a maze." 

"Some threats of totalitarian Society forces in the canyons are avoided. Angsty feelings about the desert are felt. The beauty of the desert is also reflected on. Teenage lovers are reunited in the desert, literally running into each others arms. Secrets are kept about The Rising that should not be ( use your words! Share important info!).  Poetry is repeated in internal monologues. Cassia will also write her own poems that make me squirm."

( I then get on GoodReads on my phone and pick out a doozy for you):

I marked a map for every death

for every ache and blow

my world was all a page of black

with nothing left of snow

"And in the end? We finally find The Rising...and Cassia gets send RIGHT BACK INTO SOCIETY. (This is  not a spoiler. See the Reached blurb). Oh, and Xander has been part of The Rising the entire time. Sheesh, that was a lot of running around the desert without a plot but arc for nothing but teenage longings!"

So do you agree? Did I miss something crucial? Am I totally off-base on this book? And most importantly, will you read Reached?

There are less bubbles and far more desert dust in the book.