by Ally Condie
ages: 12+
First sentence: “I’m standing in a river.” 
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Others in the series: Matched

I’m not quite sure how to do this without giving too much of Matched away, so if you’re one of the people in the world who haven’t read it, you might want to skip this.

Cassia and her True Love, Ky, have been separated, but Cassia’s not going to let that stop her. She gets herself reassigned to the Outer Provinces, in hopes of tracking him down; he was sent there as a result of a sort she had done earlier. In the meantime, Ky is doing his best to survive, and when he finally lands in the village he was from, he sees his chance, and with a couple others, takes it.

Eventually, Cassia and Ky meet up (was there any question that they would, really?), and find their way — with their hangers on — through the caverns of the Carving to something resembling safety: the Rising, or rebellion.

In some ways, this was less pedantic than Matched: instead of treading the same old dystopian line, Condie is expanding her world, showing bits and scraps of the Society, its founding and what it’s capable of. It’s also interesting to get things from Ky’s perspective; in many, many ways he’s a more interesting and complex character than Cassia is. I appreciated knowing his history and motivations, things we weren’t given in Matched.

But there’s still so many unanswered questions, so many loose threads at the end of the book. It makes you curious, but at the same time impatient for answers. And even with all the loose ends, this one is less gripping than Matched.  Too many moments of Ky and Cassie either pining for one another, or staring into each others’ eyes once they do meet back up. Gag. There has to be more to a plot than Romance, right?

So. I don’t know if I’ll scramble for the next one, waiting for it to come out with baited breath. But it wasn’t a complete waste of my time.