The second book in her Matched Trilogy, Condie takes YA fiction in a post-dystopian society with a strong, young female lead in a unique direction. Rather than concentrate on the action - essentially the fight against societal norms and control - Condie focuses on her characters and what leads them to the choices they make throughout the story.
In league with this focus on choice, Condie introduces a second narrator. While in Matched we only heard from Cassia, Crossed brings in the voice of Ky, her boyfriend, as a narrator. Both characters have led such different lives and are making choices from such different viewpoints that the action in the story really stems from the disparity in their thoughts and inner turmoils rather than any action taking place around them.
Because of this, I fell Condie kept the external action to a minimum. In Crossed, Cassia and Ky have both been sent to the Outer Provinces where a war is waging between Citizens and members of The Rising. Both of them escape their assigned locations and, along with some additional help, end up reuniting in The Carving - a cave system that felt a little Grand Canyonish to me. As they travel through The Carving trying to find the rebellion we learn about the history behind those who decided to live outside Society, Ky's past, and what both he and Cassia are willing to do for love.
This is a book about inner strength, about using what you know but also what you feel for others to make those hard choices that will define your life. It's so much more than the second part of an epic journey that could eventually bring down a corrupt way of life. I don't know what the final installment in this trilogy will hold, but I'm definitely looking forward to both the outcome for this world and of the lives of the characters we have really gotten a chance to know.
Mary Bennet, the middle sister in Pride and Prejudice never really had much depth of character. She wasn't an insatiable flirt like Lydia and Kitty nor of marrying age like Jane and Elizabeth. As a result, she floats through the story hardly noticed in Austen's extremely popular novel. This gives McCullough a lot of wiggle room to imagine a life for Mary well into spinsterhood.
Mary reaches her independence in her late 30's well after the marriages of all her other sisters and only due to the passing of her mother, the nosy Mrs. Bennet. Defying proper behavior of a single woman, Mary decides to explore the plight of the poor in England first-hand in order to write a book. She travels alone via transport used mainly by a poorer class of people which paves the way for all kinds of drama and intrigue.
In true McCullough fashion we're brought into a world where nobody is really happy to start with, yet they're all doing what need to be done to stay alive and take care of each other. While things improve for mostly everyone by the end the road isn't easy. Not everyone makes it. Full of lots of intense moments and heightened situations, Miss Mary Bennet's path to independence is an exciting story. The tone feels like a mix between a romance novel of today (without the sex) and a Gothic novel from the Victorian Era (without the supernatural element).
This was an interesting read although Mary doesn't feature as prevalently as I had thought before opening up the book. She's hardly a player until the last quarter of the novel. The narrative is more about the entire Bennet family and the people who have been pulled into their lives. I'd list this book as a quick, action-packed read good for a plane trip or somewhere where you have to sit and wait for a long time. If you really want to sample McCullough's work though and haven't read The Thorn Birds yet run out and get that today!
This isn't going to be a real book review since I'm not sure this collection of pages is even worth the amount of time I'm taking to write this little bit. Suffice it to say, this is the last Sookie Stackhouse novel I will be reading.
Typos aside (honestly who edits these?) the plot was just boring. These books should, above all else, entertain but the mysteries weren't suspenseful, the action wasn't intense, and any revelations given to our frequently attacked Sookie weren't interesting.
A disappointment all around.
THE END
I didn't get what I expected from this book. I had picked it up assuming it would be part memoir and part history of Bryson's own home in England which is an old rectory. Instead I got an actual history lesson in everyday life for Brits and Americans going as far back, in some cases, as the 16th century. Bryson covers how science and the inventive spirit led to the modernization that changed day-to-day life and how trends in professional options - like becoming an architect or an archaeologist - changed what we knew about and how we looked at our world.
The really unique aspect of this book is how Bryson presents this history of living. He goes room by room in his own home, selecting a theme tied to each room (even the hallway) of his house. (Did you know that the stairs are the most common location in the home for fatal accidents? Yes this is an important, historically proven fact.) In the nursery he talks about the life of a child how child labor and controlling, unemotional parents made things especially rough. In the bathroom, we learn about sewage and the history of waste disposal. The attic serves as the location for Bryson to discuss the trend toward preserving historical objects - did you know Stonehenge was almost demolished to make way for more housing?
You'd think a history lesson like this, focusing on something as simple as life and the home, would be boring but the complete opposite is true. The way Bryson writes, the way he speaks to the reader is so engaging that you become interested in what he's interested in. His passion for the subject leads you to want to learn more. And his passion for this book is so obvious. You can see how deep he went in to gather material for the book from the obscure sources he quotes. For example, when in the garden Bryson talks about the rise of outdoor aesthetics, quoting from this source, "On the Laying Out, Planting, and Managing of Cemeteries; and on the Improvement of Churchyards," by Claudius Loudon, 1843. I can't imagine this is a readily available bit of source material - some digging must have had to been done.
Also unique to Bryson's way to telling history is his attachment to language. The most surprising vein of information throughout the book are facts of an etymological nature. Bryson never misses an opportunity throughout the book to tell use where a common household word was first used and where it was derived from and when it first appeared in the modern lexicon. This is a surprising addition to the narrative that I find myself more curious about than some of the history being shared. I love learning about where words come from though and why we use them. It was a welcomed surprise to be treated to these facts in this book.
I liked everything about this book from the way it was organized to the facts Bryson shared to the narrative voice. Maybe Bryson should write all our history textbooks - I bet more students would actually read them.
