Crossed by Allie Condie Review

Let's take a quiz, everyone! What is this quiz? The quiz where we see if you are a humanist! What is a humanist? A person who wishes to further the goodness of humanity and help humanity prosper! Now, I'll tell you a little story about this subject:

How Your Possibly Ex-Boyfriend (You may still be together) Inspired You To Become A Humanist:
Let's say your boyfriend was a victim of a crime, such as a hate crime, a rape, a victim of the Holocaust or Stalin's purgings (really any genocide), his entire family died, he was abandoned, was a victim of an abusive relationship, think of something bad that could have happened to your boyfriend. Think of how he might be, very depressed, having emotional problems, reclusive, or he could have gotten over it. Getting over any of those things listed above are very hard, but people can learn to get over it. It takes time and it's very hard.
Now, what if your boyfriend is over what happened to him? He knows that even though someone may have hurt him, no one of either gender, race, or some other thing is all truly evil (EX: his mother beat him, he knows not all women are evil, vice versa if his father beat him, not all men are evil). He wants to help other people and learns that telling his story may be hard, but even telling a few people can help. He doesn't have to write a bestselling book on it. Your boyfriend inspires you, so even if you break up you still want to help people.
It may not be your boyfriend who inspires you to do that, it could be a relative, a friend, that person doesn't even have to be male. Their gender doesn't matter or even who they are to you, what matters is they got over something horrible and they are learning to get over it and trust people again. They want to help others. Do you know who that person is? A hero. I can understand why you'd become a humanist because of your boyfriend (or like I said with a relative or friend) if something like that happened again.
Maybe something like that didn't happen to your boyfriend (or the relative or friend) specifically, but someone they knew. If that truly changed their life and yours also when they tell what happened to the person they knew, I would understand why your boyfriend (or relative or friend) made you become a humanist. Maybe his friend was in a hate crime or he helped war refugees. It doesn't matter, as long as you both have a true meaning for why you learn to become humanists.

But if you (and also possibly your boyfriend) become a humanist because you want (and possibly your boyfriend) to rip each others pants off, that isn't humanism. That means you are selfish and don't really care about humanity's oppression.

So, does this book pass the quiz? No. This is false humanism. This book tries to look like it cares about oppressed people in dystopias, that it has a deeper meaning than the horny teenagers who are the main characters, but it doesn't really. The main characters Ky and Cassia are perhaps some of the most selfish people in fiction. They don't care about the people oppressed by the Society in this book, they only care about stopping the Society so that they can be together. It's true, they don't care that the Society is sending off kids and teenagers to die in war, they just want to fuck each other. The only reason they went through so much in this book was for each other, they joined the Rising so they could fight to be together. They don't care about anyone but themselves and their sexual organs. I hate hearing about how this helps us understand oppressed people, it doesn't! It's practically stated in the book Cassia and Ky care for no one else but themselves. What are some reasons each of the characters are selfish?

Cassia:
-Endangers her family even though she ignorantly claimed she isn't trying to so she can be with a boy I feel she isn't truly in love with because we were told they were in love, not shown (I don't think she loves Xander, either).

Ky:
-Also falls in love with Cassia even though I don't understand why.
-Forces a boy to come with him and Vick to escape their oppression just because he looks like Cassia's brother. Yes, a whim that the kid looks like his fuck buddy's brother! He doesn't even give the poor kid a choice!

So, are these characters selfish? Yes. Like I said, they don't want to further the good of humanity. They are NOT heroes. Cassia's boyfriend is NOT, I repeat, is NOT a humanist. Neither is Cassia.

The quiz is done, the book does not get any awards. On with the review.

-They feed full meals at work camps (I never truly understood the camps). Where have you heard of work camps where they feed full meals?
-The places in Utah that were based in real life for the Carving in the book appear to not have changed much over time, and since we have no idea how far in the future we are and with the Warming (which wasn't explained well), so it defies the science of rock changing over time in the rock cycle.
-It was boring and very slow. There was no pace. I literally almost made this a DNF.

We meet new characters and get more characterization of characters we already know (that for some reason we didn't get in the first book). But don't worry, everyone is still robots.
Cassia and Ky really haven't changed.
Vick and Eli were pretty unexplored characters.
Indie? Well, you know how I said Divergent copied Phineas and Ferb? Well, Condie copied Futurama with Indie. 

 How is Indie like Bender?

-They both make boats to escape their evil controllers (Bender from Mom Corp. and Indie from the Society).
-They both really don't know how to boat (Indie got caught, Bender cursed Poseidon).
-They both ended up back on shore (Indie got caught, Bender ended up with the other old robots).
-In the end they both join and cause a rebellion (Indie joining the Rebellion, I can already guess what will happen in the last book. Bender and the other old robots tried to destroy basically all technology and failed).

 

 -They both take place in a poorly explained future (although one is funny, I bet you can guess which one that is).

I also really never understood Indie.
Watch the best Bender clip of this I can find on YouTube since I can't find anything better (the episode's name is "Obsoletely Fabulous"): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA0MWKlPN-c

The book is just as homophobic as ever, extremely heteronormative (I've learned the author is a Mormon, possible hint why).

At times the book reminded me greatly of the scenes in Brave New World that takes place in New Mexico, and Condie is still copying Lois Lowry.

I feel sorry for myself. Why? Because I'll most likely read the third book to see how it ends. I didn't like the first book, I also didn't like the second. *Sigh* This book only gets one star. Now excuse me while I actually TRY to further the good of humanity for everyone without any sexual undertones and also go clean my brain with Futurama. Read this if you dare!