Review for Crossed by Ally Condie

Crossed by Ally Condie
Publisher: Puffin
Release Date: 24th November 2011
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian
Rating: 2.5/5 stars
Source: Received from the publisher for review

Amazon Summary:
"Rules are different outside the Society.

Chasing down an uncertain future, Cassia makes her way to the Outer Provinces in pursuit of Ky-taken by the Society to his certain death-only to find that he has escaped into the majestic, but treacherous, canyons. On this wild frontier are glimmers of a different life and the enthralling promise of rebellion. But even as Cassia sacrifices everything to reunite with Ky, ingenious surprises from Xander may change the game once again.

Narrated from both Cassia's and Ky's points of view, this hotly anticipated sequel to Matched will take them both to the edge of Society, where nothing is as expected and crosses and double crosses make their path more twisted than ever..."

Review
I was a huge fan of Matched when it came out last year and have been pining for Crossed ever since. I went into this book with high expectations, the back of the book talks about a rebellion rising and the picture of Cassia breaking out of the bubble made me think things were going to EXPLODE in this sequel but sadly I was left disappointed.

I started this book really confused. It’s been a long time since I read Matched, as I’m sure it has been for a lot of people, and I couldn’t really remember the ending. With a lot of books this isn’t really an issue as authors are usually pretty good at re-capping past events. Yeah that didn’t happen with this one, and so I spent the first hundred pages kind of confused. Luckily as I read on I managed to figure stuff out on my own and snippets came back to me but if your memory of Matched is a bit fuzzy like mine was I would really recommend re-reading Matched before starting Crossed.

Crossed is told from both Cassia and Ky’s perspective which I think had both its pro’s and con’s. In Matched I really liked both Ky and Xander but if I had to pick one I’d probably of gone with Xander. This book really gives us a chance to get to know Ky better and I was really touched by the parts where we see Cassia through his eyes. However I didn’t think that Ally Condie did a good job at making Cassia and Ky’s voices distinctive from one another. Despite stating their names at the beginning of each chapter their voices were so similar that I had to constantly flick back to see whose perspective I was supposed to be reading from because there was no distinction between them other than a name stated at the beginning of each chapter.

There were some things I did like about this book. I really liked the introduction of some new and interesting characters particularly Eli and Indie. I also liked getting to know Ky better and watching Cassia develop from Society Cassia in to Rebel Cassia. I can’t take away from the fact that Ally Condie is an extremely talented writer who writes some incredibly moving and beautiful scenes but unfortunately a dual narrative clearly isn’t her strong point and I really hope she tells the last book from just Cassia’s perspective.

When I got to the end of the book the first thing that came to mind was- is that it? This whole book is basically Cassia wondering around some canyons. There’s no answers, no action and the book ends right where Matched left off and leaves us none the wiser regarding anything really.

Crossed for me was a really pointless book. Absolutely nothing happened plot wise. This is a book entirely based on character development. I hate to say this but I was bored and when I finished reading I felt like this book was a huge waste of my time mostly because I didn’t learn anything different that I didn’t already know from having read Matched. This is a bit of a circle book where the author takes us on this great long journey just to end up back where we started. I was disappointed with this one but as there’s only one book left in the series I will still be checking it out and hope that Ally Condie will finally give us some answers.

Review for There is No Dog by Meg Rosoff

There is No Dog by Meg Rosoff
Publisher: Puffin
Release Date: 4th August 2011
Genre: Young Adult, Religion, Comedy
Rating: 2.5/5 stars
Source: Received as part of UK Book Tours

Amazon Summary:
"In the beginning there was Bob.
And Bob created the heavens and the earth
and the beasts of the field
and the creatures of the sea,
and twenty-five million other species
including lots and lots of gorgeous girls.
And all of this, he created in just six days.
Six days!
Congratulations, Bob!
No wonder Earth is such a mess.

Imagine that God is a typical teenage boy. He is lazy, careless, self-obsessed, sex-mad - and about to meet Lucy, the most beautiful girl on earth.

Unfortunately, whenever Bob falls in love, disaster follows.

Let us pray that Bob does not fall in love with Lucy."

Review
I originally wanted to read this book for my British Books Challenge with Meg Rosoff being an award winning British writer. Despite a lot of critical acclaim from the press I know a lot of people who either love or hate her books so with There is No Dog being my first book by Rosoff I was interested to see which category I would fall under and now that I’ve finished reading it I have to say I’m split firmly down the middle.

There is no doubt about the genius behind this book even from the synopsis – god turning out to be a teenage boy, of course! Brilliant! Now it all makes sense! And throughout the book Rosoff continues to explore the meaning of life through the eyes of several characters. The last of an extinct creature who knows he is soon going to die. A goddess who has the gift of immortality and how that brings her to lead an “invincible” lifestyle of excessive drinking and gambling. And, most interestingly of all for me, a vicar who throughout this book witnesses first hand a less than perfect God and has to personally deal with the fall out of Bob’s actions. The genius and thought put into this book were incredibly well thought out and thought provoking. I enjoyed that even though this book is essentially a story about religion at no point did it ever feel preachy so props have to go to Meg for that.

Now on to my dislikes. From the back of the book I expected this to be a rather humorous account through the eyes of a teenage god and whilst in some parts that was the case I couldn’t help wanting more from that side of the story. I wanted more about the thought process that went into Bob creating the world and more funny mishaps as Bob try’s to date a human girl. Unfortunately because there were so many other characters these things were only touched upon which I found disappointing. I also found Bob’s character to be quite patronizing and very stereotypical of a teenage boy with Bob only caring about himself and his latest conquest with no real thought process to back it up.

Overall I have very mixed feelings over There is No Dog. Some parts of this story were down right bizarre and for that reason I’m not sure if it will be everybody’s cup of tea. I can certainly see what Meg Rosoff was trying to achieve with this book but don’t think it was executed as well as it could have been. For me this book is a bit of a risk taker, I think most people will either love it or hate it. This book wasn’t really for me but I did enjoy it to some extent and for that reason don’t regret giving this book, something completely out of my comfort zone, a go.