Crossed (Matched Book 2)

Matched Series Website

Book Details:  #1 New York Times best selling series, written by Ally Condie. Publication November 1^st, 2011. 384 Pages. You can purchase a hard copy or digital copy at Amazon.

Crossed Synopsis: Crossed begins three months after Matched, with Ky in the outer provinces and Cassia at a work camp. Crossed jumps from Ky’s perspective to Cassia’s perspective so that you can see both individuals progression.  At the end of Matched, Ky is taken by the officials and sent to the outer provinces with a group of guys who are all aberrations. The Society is using them as a show in order for the enemy to think the area is occupied.  Placed in the line of fire Ky sees a lot of death in those three months. Cassia is transported to a manual labor camp for showing signs of rebelliousness. Working the fields with a group of girls near the outer provinces, Cassia is trying her hardest to find a way to Ky and waiting for the perfect moment to run. All the while Ky is planning his escape to go search for Cassia, but he has no idea she is no longer in their hometown.

The Society decides to move the girls from the work camp to the outer provinces to join up with the boys. Cassia is so excited she can hardly believe that she is just being delivered to Ky. When she shows up she find out Ky had already left two nights before. Ky is on his way through the canyons about twenty miles away from where Cassia is currently. He is traveling with two guys he was able to escape with, Vick and Eli. Cassia sneaks away once she knows that Ky is no longer there with her new companion Indie.  Together Cassia and Indie make it through the canyon looking for signs of Ky.  Eventually Cassia finds a tree with her name carved into the trunk in an abandoned town tucked away in the canyon.  She knows she is close and keeps pushing, soon finding Ky deep within the canyon. Together the group goes looking for the resistance after finding a map in the abandoned town.  Once they reach the location of the resistance Ky and Cassia are again separated on their own individual missions to better help with the resistance. Who knows when they will see each other again?

My Thoughts: I found it more entertaining than the Matched but it was still slower than I would have liked. I really like when books jump from different characters point of views from chapter to chapter.  Getting to see more of Ky and his life was a nice change. I did not like that Ky and Cassia are separated at the end of the fist two books leaving their relationship up in the air. I did enjoy reading about the new characters added to the story. Cassia and Ky are just constantly fighting their way to each other and during that time the author gives you more of the plot and explains the history behind the society and the resistance. I just want more from the story instead of the characters on this constant journey to something more.

Matched

Matched Website

Book Details: #1 New York Times best selling series, written by Ally Condie. Publication November 30^th, 2010. 369 Pages. You can purchase a hard copy or digital copy at Amazon.

Matched Synopsis: The Society, a government entity who monitors and dictates the paths of its citizens’ lives. Everything is chosen for you; your husband, your wife, your job, where you live and the activities you involve yourself in daily. Citizens are given just enough freedom throughout the day in order to avoid an uprising. All information is entered into a large data pool where the officials can see any trend in your behavior and predict the most likely outcome to any situation you are placed in. No one is allowed to create anything new; you are only allowed to paint the approved paintings and write the approved literature. Also, no one knows how to physically write with a pen or pencil. Only computers are used so that everything may be saved in your own personal data pool. Anything done on these computers are monitored

Matched begins with Cassia, our protagonist, and her good friend Xander, traveling to the matching ceremony. A large ceremony is held anytime during your seventeenth year of life where The Society chooses your ideal match that would theoretically “produce physically and emotionally healthy offspring”. In City Halls throughout The Societies domain those entered into the matching ceremony gather to see their ideal match broadcast over a large screen.

After receiving her match, Cassia is given a computer-generated card with detailed information to review at her convenience. Instead of just seeing her match’s picture when going over the information a second face pops up leaving Cassia questioning everything she knows about the society. Cassia starts to grow closer to Ky, the other boy she was matched with, while finding out that he is forbidden from being entered in to the matching pool. You can choose to be matched or to be a single. Then there are Aberrations, people who are ineligible to be matched or make any choices for themselves based on past transgressions. As Cassia gets closer to Ky she begins to understand how much control The Society really has over its citizens.

My Thoughts: By the end of the book I was curious to know what would happen next in the second book, Crossed. The plot was very drug out and I was losing interest pretty quick. I like books to really jump into things and make you not want to put the book down. I could definitely put this one down. It was, however, very well written. I really did enjoy the theory behind The Society and why they exist. No one gets sick and no one needs to worry about cancer anymore because of the matching ceremony producing the best possible offspring.

I did enjoy reading how Cassia and Ky’s relationship develops over the course of the book. I feel terrible for Xander having to be the odd man out because Cassia doesn't choose him. Personally he is my favorite out of the two boys. The society constantly watches its citizens, which I found creepy and very irritating. Overall it is an interesting idea just a little slower then I liked.

World After (Penryn & the End of Days, Book 2)

Susan Ee Website

Book Details: Written by Susan Ee, US Today best selling author. Publication November 19^th 2013. 314 Pages. You can purchase a hard copy or digital copy at Amazon.

World After Synopsis: Angelfall ends with everyone thinking Penryn has died. The angels have created a creature that has the body of a man, a scorpion tail and bug like wings. Penryn gets stabbed by one of these “locust” with paralytic poison. Raffe believes that Penryn has died and delivers her body back to her mother and sister.

World After begins with Penryn regaining movement in her body and sitting up, frightening the people who see this. Her family is now traveling with the resistance the group who attacked the Aerie at the end of Angelfall. The resistance takes the group of survivors into hiding to their new location, Palo Alto high school. Now with Paige back Penryn has a hard time accepting how she has changed and doesn’t know how to act like a big sister anymore.

The resistance has been working on placing a surveillance system all over the San Francisco area. Penryn and Obi, the leader of the resistance, see Raffe with his new wings going after Beleil, a fallen angel who stole Raffe's wings. To everyone but Penryn Raffe now looks like the devil himself come to earth. Obi sends out a recon group, which includes Penryn, to monitor the situation at the old Aerie. The recon team discovers that all the angels shot down or injured are moving and quickly healing from the attack leaving not a single casualty for the angels.

Back at the resistance Penryn starts to have very real dreams involving Raffe and his sword. In a way his sword is speaking to her through these dreams and teaching her how to wield it properly. She gets quite the insight into Raffe’s past and how lonely a path he was on. Penryn begins to really miss her relationship with Raffe and wonders when she will see him next.

Paige leaves her family back at the resistance because of her peculiar situation. Penryn and their mother leave soon after to follow her trail. While out searching they discover how many of these “locusts” have been created and start seeing swarms of them in the sky, hoarding people to their death. Penryn works hard to get back to her sister and along the way has to overcome many obstacles and distractions, always hoping she will see Raffe again.

My Thoughts: World After is more exciting than Angelfall. In Angelfall the author had to build the story and explain to the reader everything going on and why. World After jumps right into the story from where Angelfall left off. You get to see more of Penryn’s relationship with her family in this book, but while I was reading I just wanted Raffe to find Penryn and know she did not die. When that finally happens I was so excited by how the author describe both of their reactions that I just wanted more interaction between the two.

The plot is still a post-apocalyptic setting with some very grim and horrific descriptions of the world and how people are acting, but it just makes this book series so unique. Great series, I cannot wait to see what happens next!! So far there is no information about when the third book will be published.

Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days, Book 1)



Susan Ee Website

Book Details: Written by Susan Ee, US Today best selling author. Publication May 21st, 2011. 247 Pages. You can purchase a hard copy or digital copy at Amazon.

Angelfall Synopsis: Angelfall is set in a post-apocalyptic world where our protagonist, Penryn, is trying to survive in a hellacious environment with her mother and little sister Paige. A few weeks into the apocalypse gangs rule the streets and angels of the apocalypse rule the earth. Penryn and her family are trying to escape from their apartment in Silicon Valley into a less urban area outside of town. Paige is in a wheel chair from an accident when she was little and their mother is no longer on her psychotropic medication to keep her semi-sane. Penryn is basically in charge of keeping her family safe from the world crumbling in on them.

While attempting to exit town in the cover of night they are suddenly delayed. A white winged angel, Snow, falls from the sky fighting off five other angels. Penryn and her family dash behind an abandoned car to hide. The five angels land near Snow and cut off his wings, Paige makes a small sound out of sympathy and ends up getting the attention of the angels. Penryn tells her mother and sister to leave while she distracts the angels, her mother scurries away without helping Paige push her wheel chair and Paige is left to wheel herself. Penryn grabs the sword that Snow dropped when falling and throws it to him, using what’s left of his energy he fights off the angels. One of the five becomes very angry with Penryn for interfering and grabs her sister from her wheel chair as he flies away, while the other angels flee leaving a wounded Snow. Penryn collects the angel along with his cut off wings and sword and lifts him in the wheel chair knowing he will be her best chance of finding Paige.

Over the next couple days Snow is asleep and recovering, Penryn discovers angels have a very quick recovery time. Once he wakes she learns his name is Raffe. He tells Penryn that he believes they will find the angels who took her sister at the Aerie, the main location for the angels, located in San Francisco. Together they travel to the Aerie with her mother some how following their path and showing up occasionally. While on their journey, Raffe and Penryn fight off gangs and struggle to feed themselves, resorting to cat food when needed. When they finally make it to the Aerie they realize the situation is much worse then they could have guessed.

My Thoughts: Angelfall has an extremely interesting plot and was easy for me to get caught up in and want to know more of this world after the apocalypse. I really enjoyed the relationship between Raffe and Penryn; they start off as archenemies since angels destroyed most of the world she knows and humans are compared to monkeys by the angels. Over the course of the book they become slight friends that rely on each other and care what happens to the other even though neither would admit that. Some of the descriptions used to explain the extent of the apocalypse were a little gruesome but necessary for the reader to understand how bad the world has become. Overall I really pleased with the book and cannot wait to read World After the second book in the series.