Yay or Nay? The Selection by Kiera Cass

I remember being 15 and seeing the cover and being like "OMG must read must be great so pretty!!!! emoji emoji" I was very cringe as a teenager. I cringe at the memory. I cringe at the word cringe.

I ended up reading it in a day or two back then, and absolutely loving it! So I thought that it would be interesting to reread it as an adult, and see if I would still like it, or if I'd find the entire premise absolutely ridiculous.

The Story

The book is set in the distant future, in a land called Illea, that's been through many wars, changes etc. and established a caste system. Our main character is in the fifth caste (out of eight) , and she is secretly dating her friend, Aspen (6th caste) which would be frowned upon by her family (cause there can be no normal relationships in YA literature as we all know).

I may be romantically challenged... 

The plot takes off when America is shanghaied by her mother into applying for the titular Selection. Which is essentially a Bachelor-esque competition where the Prince will choose his wife and queen from a group of girls. And America obviously gets selected, even though she really doesn't want to because she loves Aspen and wants to have his babies and so on. But then he breaks up with her cause "he's not good enough for her" so America leaves for the palace, cause the food's better and stuff.

My Thoughts

I still liked the book the second time around, not as much as the first time, but it was fun to read and entertaining enough for the morning commute.

That said, America was nice enough I suppose, but I feel like the author tried too hard to make her feel "unique" and different than a typical girl. America refused to wear a lot of makeup, protested that dresses were uncomfortable etc. 

I don't need make up, my face is ART!

And while all of these are fine opinions to have, they sounded artificial in terms of America's characterization (this sentence sounds like it's been plagiarized from one of Meghan's papers. Goddammit).

All the drama between the Selection contestants and the teen angst was addicting and so so good! That's why this book is still so fun to read despite all of its flaws. I feel like it would be a perfect choice for a teenage girl who typically doesn’t read, to pick up a book (and get her doing something else than twittering and snapchatting and whatever the kids busy themselves with these days) since the style is light and addicting sort of like reality TV. Which is absolutely perfect and suits the premise perfectly.

However the lightness and quickness of the book leaves some parts of the setting undeveloped. Kiera tried to explain how the different castes lived, and the rebel attacks that were happening, but I just couldn't picture the world she described. And for me that's a bit of a setback since my favourite books typically have rich and engaging settings.

All in all, I would give this book 3.5/5

It's not the Great American Novel, but that's fine because the fun it provides while reading is good enough. I would recommend buying, cause even if you don't like it, it will look great as a decoration in your house.

~Olga