“I’m standing in a river.”

From Ally Condie’s Crossed.

After being mistakenly matched with the outcast aberration Ky, Cassia soon fell in love with Ky instead of her best friend Xander who the Society matched her with.  Because Cassia and Ky continued in their forbidden love, the Society removed him and ordered the entire neighborhood to take a government-issued red pill to erase their recent memories.  However, Cassia fakes taking the pill to keep her memories, so that when she arrives at a work camp for her disobedience to the Society, she remembers everything of her time with Ky.  When Xander comes to visit Cassia, he agrees to help her search for Ky, and their search soon leads them to information on a rebellion rising against the Society.  Meanwhile, Ky struggles to escape the Society and their dangerous plans for him, so he escapes at his first chance and heads off through the barren landscape to find safety from the Society.  When Cassia and Ky finally manage to find each other in the wilderness, the also discover towns abandoned by the Society and caves filled with genetic samples on every citizen.  Unwilling to return to the Society, Cassia, Ky, and their friend Indie decide to find and join the Rising rebellion, allowing Ky to follow in his father’s attempts to stop the Society’s evil.

The second book in Condie’s young adult dystopian romance trilogy is quite different from the previous book, but readers will be captivated just the same.  All the characters are allowed to develop and grow through different situations and places, while the crumbling utopian government is highlighted from a different perspective.  Readers will enjoy Crossed and will end the book ready to move into the next and final book.