"CROSSED" by Ally Condie (Character Response)

SPOILER ALERT

(You may not want to read this if you're reading Matched or haven't reached this book yet)

  Have you ever been really determined to find someone or something? Have you ever been so determined that you were willing to break the rules? Have you ever been so determined to do something, that you forgot about everyone and anything else? In the book, "CROSSED," sequel to, "MATCHED," by Ally Condie, the two main characters, Cassia and Ky are determined to find each other after they were separated out of the Society in the first book. Ky is an abberation, which is someone who simply doesn't belong in society. There are many levels to this. For example, they're to stay single forever and to never get married later on in life. It's hard to not break the rules when they both 'accidentally' fell in love, but Ky was soon separated.

  In this book, determination plays a huge roll. Cassia has gone off to the Outer Province's to find Ky, but he's escaped towards the Canyon's to find her in the society. In my opinion, Cassia could've just given up when Ky was taken away and she was taken from Society too, but she didn't. Ky was the only thing she thought about, and of course her other match/ best friend Xavier, which she left heart broken. I don't want to call it a sacrifice, because she made it seem so easy to just up and stop talking to him, but she didn't do it on purpose, but to him it seemed like she didn't care. She worried more about Ky than Xander. On page 35 he says, " You left me before you left Oria." She didn't understand that when Ky came in to the picture and they were sneaking off to meet each other, she forgot about the times she was supposed to hang out with Xander. She was too busy worried about Ky, that she never made time for her best friend. Now, she's so determined to find Ky, that she's forgotten about the rules. It's not so much that she miraculously changed, it's that she's slowly becoming a different person.

  Throughout the book so far, Cassia and Ky have made several references about each other in their point of views, every other chapter. On page 39, Ky references to a poem from the Society, but it's not the poem him and Cassia shared. In his thoughts he says, " Not the poem that belongs to Cassia and me, I won't speak those words to anyone again until I can tell them to her." Obviously, he believes that he can find her again, and the fact that he's escaped his group, with a few friends, shows how determined he is to get back to her, even though she's kind of closer than he thinks. On page 95, she's about to escape with a boy she just met and her friend Indie. Indie and the boy are mostly worried about being tired and how long the run is going to be, but Cassia has basically zoned them out and she's thinking about getting to Ky as soon as possible. She's wondering about Ky's favorite smells, and how he might smell and things like that. As she climbs down into the canyon, on page 101, she thinks about the life she had and the risks she's about to make. She thinks about her mom, dad, brother, Xander, and the Society in general. She thinks about how she's played by the rules almost her whole life. She doesn't know what could happen from this point on, but that doesn't matter much to her. Her main focus is finding Ky.

  This is only around how far I've gotten in this book, but basically I felt that a lot of this book so far showed character determination. It seems like in each point of view, you can see the other characters name on like each page. I think I mostly chose determination as a character trait here, because in the first book she made a lot of sacrifices. Getting information she wasn't supposed to have, seeing Ky when she should be studying, breaking tablets, loosing tablets that she was supposed to take, and many more. I find it strange how this book can relate to so many people, but there are so many problems in between. If you do anything wrong during this little mission, you can be put away. You can become an abberation yourself and not be let back into Society. Where can the characters end up in the book if Ky is almost at the end of the Canyon, and Cassia is just starting out? What if this is another test for the characters, like Cassia and Ky were tested in "Matched" Ky was like a test to see how Cassia would react with 2 Matches, when one was just a "mistake" the Society made? The society never makes mistakes though. In the end, I hope the characters find each other soon, because they are both really determined to find each other.

"The Future Of Us" by Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler

      One of the books I chose to read this summer was, "The Future Of Us", by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler. I found myself constantly re-reading pages to make sure I understood completely what was going on. I realized that the main characters were very interesting when around each other. Emma and Josh used to be the best of friends until  Josh developed feelings for Emma but she didn't feel the same way, so they drifted apart from there. They've lived next to each other for forever, but something brings them back together as friends, which is Facebook. This book takes place in 1996, when people were using AOL very often and Online CD-ROM's. Josh's family had given the CD-ROM to the Emma's family. Emma had been warned that sometimes they mess with your computers especially with AOL, but she continues to download it anyway. When she discovers Facebook on her computer she analyzes it she invites Josh over to view it as well. Their profiles are 15 years into the future, but it takes time before they realize that the more information they find about their futures, the more they begin to mess with it and make changes.
     
     After Emma has invited Josh to see Facebook on her computer, he completely denies it and states that it is fake, and that someone is toying with her computer to make her believe all this stuff. Day after day he denies it, but when he finds out that he marries the most popular girl in school, Sydney Mills, he begins to make an effort to talk to her. He sticks up for her in class, and makes even more of an effort to get to know her, so he can  build up the courage to ask her out. Meanwhile Emma is onto her second husband. She found out that she was married to a Jordan Jones and that she met him in college. After she looked through several phone books, she gave him a call, but she wasn't interested in him. She instantly crossed that college off of her list. Later on she marries a Kevin. She thought everything was perfect, but he was becoming like her last husband, and she didn't think it was going to work. She divorced him because she wasn't happy according to her Facebook statuses and her friends agreed, Her thoughts, and her actions changed her future. She found out that her best friend Kellan had a 14 year old. Considering Facebook was only 15 years into the future, Kellan was either pregnant then, or was going to be soon. She didn't let Kellan out of her sight, because Kellan had a mapped out future and a perfect career in mind, but according to Facebook, that never happened. 
      
     Those weren't the only times that Emma had toyed with her future, but I completely understand why. In Emma's mind, she had a perfect future, but when she was introduced to Facebook, everything seemed different 15 years later. She constantly worried about her past and how she turned down Josh. Her words were, "No. You're . . . Josh." She didn't mean it in a mean way but I could see how he took that offensive. She meant that he's supposed to be her best friend, someone she could count on. She didn't want to ruin their friendship, but that happened anyway. She soon realizes that her knowing her future has made her life worse. Even though her and Josh have become friends again, they fight a lot. I think that it's because she's jealous that Josh isn't so caught up on her anymore, and that he's been paying Sydney Mills more attention than anyone. You can tell that Josh was jealous of Emma's ex-boyfriend and her crush after that, but he didn't show it as much as she did. Rather, it wasn't as obvious. She regrets telling Josh that on Facebook, him and Sydney are married and their life is perfect. She realizes that her attempting to re-create her own future was hurting other peoples futures. That's when on Facebook she mentions that she's going to deactivate her account. When she gets home from the senior ditch day bonfire, Facebook no longer exist when she logs into AOL, which  relieves her. She was satisfied that it was over. All the drama, all the changes and everything, was over. 

     I think the reason that I liked this book a lot was because it wasn't specifically like other books or movies about the future that I've read or have seen. It had it's own little back-story which helped the story flow. I liked how Emma and Josh lived right next door to each other and Josh was in the grade below Emma. I think I enjoyed the ending because at the end, Josh Tyson, Kellan, and Emma all hang out at Tyson's dad's pizza shop which has a deep ball pit inside for when teens and kids are hanging out. (Tyson is also a friend of theirs) Kellan and Tyson purposely leave Emma and Josh alone and while they were all having fun, Josh accidentally touched Emma's hand and pulled away, but Emma reached for his hand and held it. This book seemed so realistic like as if it could happen any day in your life. Like as if you could discover a new social network with your new computer and it's already logged in with all your information and the people there consist of your closest friends and maybe even secrets you've never told anyone before. Maybe you have a stalker but its an old friend of yours that you forgot about or stopped talking to because of whatever reason. All in all, this was an amazing book, and it's something I would read over and over.