Crossed

Beware, many spoilers lie ahead :)

I have been reading soooooo much lately and I love it. School had gotten me so busy (which I'm not complaining about :) But I hadn't had much chance to read and my life was missing some good, solid reading time :)

After finishing The Power of Six I read a few books that I bought at the Scholastic Warehouse Book Sale (Prom and Prejudice, Julia Gillian and Gregor the Overlander).

Then I got Matched and Crossed for Christmas and they were the next on my to read/re-read list. I read Matched awhile ago and loved it. I loved it again re-reading. I read most of it on the car ride to visit Big Sis, Bro-in-Law and Lil E. Lil Sis wants to read them after I'm done and I made some comment about how I hadn't chosen a team yet. I remember reading it the first time and liking Xander, but I hadn't committed yet. I think part of it was that I felt I was being led to believe she would end up with Ky, and after having my heart broken by Cassandra Clare enough times, I didn't want to chose the "wrong" guy.

Upon second reading, I still wasn't sure, but was leaning towards Xander. After reading Crossed, I'm pretty firmly entrenched on Team Xander, though I did come to appreciate both guys more while reading Crossed.

I didn't mind the alternating perspectives of Crossed. I liked getting insight into Ky and his feelings for Cassia. I liked getting more of his history and knowing where he was coming from. Although I agree with some reviewers that at times I would be reading and couldn't remember which character was narrating. Especially when they were together, I'd have to check to see if the narrator was mentioning Cassia or Ky, so know that the other one was speaking.

I worry that The Rising is going to be like District 13 from the Hunger Games. The people of the Rising seem to be as controlling as the Society members. After arriving they immediately decide where Ky, Indie and Cassia will be most useful and send them there. Sounds a lot like the Society deciding careers for the citizens. I have a feeling that the Rising is not going to be the happy solution Cassia hopes it will be.

For some reason, I didn't that Xander's secret, that he was part of the Rising, was that shocking. Maybe because I love Xander, I always expected him to be on the "right" side, but it wasn't surprising to me. It made me love him more, though.

I hated how Ky was so easily going to leave Cassia and let her go off to the Rising without him. I understand that he couldn't trust the Rising and he had past dealings with them that were catastrophic. But this girl has just left civilization, risked everything in her life, her family, her friends, Xander, her career, her civilian status, her life!! to find you and be with you. And after being reunited for only days (weeks? I lost track of time) you're willing to give her up? I couldn't believe that he would separate from her so willingly after she sacrificed everything for him? Sign me up for Team Xander. I know that he ended up following her, but that hesitation too much for me to overlook.

Plus, I loved what Xander has risked for her and that he was still supporting and loving her even after she'd turned her affections to Ky. He saved the compass, even though it wasn't even hers, but Ky's. He somehow managed to get her blue tablets and put messages in them for her. He convinced the Officials to let him visit her while she was at the work camp, he sent her messages even when she'd chosen Ky, he chatted up the officer so she could make a trade with the Archivist. Basically I love me some Xander, but I understand the love for Ky, but I can't get over his momentary abandonment.

Major Questions I have left: Who was the last chapter about? Ky or Xander? Upon first reading I assumed it was Ky she was going to meet. But then I thought about it and wondered if it might be Xander. I re-read it and it doesn't mention a name or any info that would give it away. It seems more plausible that Xander would be able to meet her, since they're both in Central. Both of them are in the Rising, so really it could be either...

Who is the Enemy? Is it the Rising? I hope not, since they've killed so many innocent civilians. Is it some entity we don't know about yet? Society killing off those they deem undesirable? The farmers?

Who put Ky's name in the Matching system? I'm leaning towards either Ky or Xander, but there seem to be more clues pointing to Ky.

Memorable Quotations:
"Because in the end you can't always choose what to keep. You can only choose how you let it go."

"If you love someone, if someone loved you, if they taught you to write and made it so you could speak, how can you do nothing at all? You might as well take their words out of the dirt and try to snatch them from the wind.

Because once you love, it is gone. You love and you cannot call it back.

Ky is heavy in my mind, deep in my heart, his palms warm on my empty hands. I have to try to find him. Loving him gave me wings and all my work has given me the strength to move them."

"I don't fool myself that I hold her together-- she does that on her own-- but holding her keeps me from flying apart."

"Does loving someone mean you want them to be safe? Or that you want them to be able to choose?"

"I love Ky. But I don't understand him. He won't let me reach him. I have made mistakes, too, I know it, but I am tired of chasing him through canyons and out onto plains and stretching out my hand only to have him take it some times and not others."

"Love changes what is probable and makes unlikely things possible."

"When you first love, you look blind and you see it all as the glorious beloved whole, or a beautiful sum of beautiful parts. But when you see the one you love as pieces, as whys--why he walk like this, why he closes his eyes like that-- you can love those parts, too, and it's a love at once more complicated and more complete."