Crossed (Condie)

3-/5. This is the second book in a Hunger Games Lite series. Teen romantic angst like whoa, eeeeevil dystopia, love triangle, but without the trenchant reality-show commentary that made Hunger Games worth reading. Whee. It was better than the first book in the series, Matched, in that we didn't get any horrible villain speeches that made no sense, and even some tentative arguments pointing out the dystopia has some points about it, but really, only recommended if you are into teen romantic angst. (It might just have been that I read this book right after reading Timepiece, which is refreshingly free of teen romantic angst, but Crossed drove me crazy with the constant angsting. Or maybe I'm just getting old and curmudgeonly.)

Predictions for the third book, which I'm required to read when it comes out: Ky (primary love interest) will die heroically; Cassia (heroine) will tearfully get together with Xander (secondary love interest and all-around Nice Guy); we may get a handwaving explanation of the nebulous Enemy and the War that is a topic in this book; we will never have it explained why exactly the dystopia does all the stupid things it does.