leahrosereads
Written on Sep 24, 2014
It’s only been a couple of months since I had read Cracked, but how I had missed Meda. She’s back (of course) in CRUSHED and as freaking fantastically awesome as I remembered her. Meda is easily becoming one of my favorite heroines in any YA I’ve read. I just adore her...and I think it’s kind of weird of me to say that, because Meda’s not really meant to be adored. I don’t know what it says about me that I love her so much.
I don’t really care what it says about me.
So, in CRUSHED, Meda is with the Crusaders and is doing her “best” to fit in and be the good little half demon everyone (i.e. Jo) thinks she can be.
The thing about Meda, is that while she’s not evil, she’s not good. She may have morals that have been instilled upon her by her mother, but morals don’t make a person inherently good. And it’s one of the reasons I love Meda.
So, there’s Meda trying her best to stomp down her demonic nature for the Crusaders, because she wants to help them. And what do the Crusaders do? Well, they do a hell of a lot, but trust her and believe she can be good. After taking all she can take, Meda escapes with the help of a demon we met in Cracked - the sexy, dark demon-boy - Armand. Meda doesn’t trust him, but he offered her something that the Crusaders hadn’t - freedom, and she took it.
I loved the relationship between Armand and Meda. Yes, there were some romantic feelings, but there was this understanding between the two, that no Crusader or friend of Meda’s could understand. Armand understood the Hunger that she feels. He understood her need to kill. And yet, even if he may have preferred to kill others, he also understood and respected her code of ethics going after only the truly deplorable members of society.
After being with Armand for a while, Jo (and Chi) find/get back in touch with Meda and give her some awful news about what the Crusaders want to do with her, since she left. It’s not good. To (hopefully) correct the miscommunication Meda, Armand, Jo and Chi make there way to demon central to locate something for the Crusaders. And then, shit hits the fan (more so than had already hit it).
And Meda was right not to trust Armand, but my god the feels during this part…and I completely understood why Armand did what he did for her. He may be a demon, but I truly believed he loved her the best way he knew how.
Meda has to choose between her freedom with Armand or going back with the Crusaders and really following their rules. Allowing herself to be controlled and used as a weapon to save the world.
Meda may not be good, but she’s not evil, and she knows what she has to do.
I hope I didn’t give a way too much, but I definitely think if you haven’t read Cracked yet, you should absolutely give it a try. Eliza Crewe really mixes up the usual YA concoction with this series. You get a strong female MC (which isn’t that uncommon), true friendship between two female characters (which is uncommon), no love triangle or rivalry (as of now, and so I’m going with at all), and a depth to most of the characters that will cause you (did for me) to connect with the characters on a very real level.
The writing is outstanding (and a lot better in CRUSHED). You can see the improvements to the plot, the character development, the writing, and I love that you can visually see/read that improvement.
I cannot wait to see where this story goes, and how Meda continues to grow with the Crusaders and what type of weapon she’ll become.
