The Selection by Kiera Cass Review

(Photo: kieracass.com)

 

         The Selection by Kiera Cass immediately caught my eye and not only because the dress on the cover is beautiful. The Selection promises to be a mixture of The Hunger Games and The Bachelor. The on-your-toes action of Hunger Games mixed with some juicy Bachelor drama? I was sold! However, after reading, I am sad to say: The Selection by Kiera Cass should not be a selection on your reading list.

            Years into the future, the United States has been renamed Illéa after it has been destroyed by war and divided into 35 provinces. The new country is not only divided by provinces, but by castes as well. Caste One is held by the royal family in contrast to Caste Eight, which faces starvation and poverty.

America (I-bet-you-can-guess-her-occupation) Singer, the story’s protagonist, belongs to Caste Five. Although her family is not dirt poor like those in Caste Eight, they still struggle with financial issues. Her “caste climber” mother has the solution to their economic problems—The Selection. The Selection consists of 35 girls (one from each province) competing for the prince’s hand in marriage.

Being selected brings fame and fortune, however, America does not want either. Instead, she wants to marry her secret boyfriend Aspen, who belongs to Caste Six. However, as fate not so surprisingly turns out, America is selected to compete and is whisked away to the palace to win Prince Maxon’s affections.

            While The Selection’s plot might seem like a good idea in theory, it is not executed well. If you are like me and expect a mixture of The Bachelor and The Hunger Games, you will be greatly disappointed, since it’s not as entertaining as The Bachelor or as well written as The Hunger Games. Furthermore, The Selection feels unoriginal, as many aspects of the novel seem to come straight from The Hunger Games and the recent raft of other dystopian novels. Now, I’m not one of those people that constantly belittle any new dystopian book and think that The Hunger Games should be thrust onto a dystopian pedestal (even though it is one of my favorite series). However, if you are directly comparing your novel to The Hunger Games, I am going to find similarities, and I found plenty in The Selection.

            Likewise, I was completely dissatisfied with the "dystopia" (I use this term loosely) aspect of the novel. Although The Selection is set in the future and sells itself as a dystopian compete-or-die book, there is nothing truly dystopian in the novel. Sure, the author throws in that there is a war and the previous United States has fallen apart, but other than that, it is simply about the girls vying for Prince Maxon’s attention. A true dystopian novel focuses on a current problem in society and exaggerates it to show possible consequences for our behavior. The Selection does neither and attempts to establish any type of dystopia in a flimsy history lesson.

            Besides lacking in content, The Selection’s characters are lackluster. America’s character is completely inconsistent. The author tries to make her a strong heroine, but she only comes across as another flighty teenage girl. Hint: Red hair is not the only characterization for being strong. However, I did enjoy when she told Prince Maxon she was there for the food. That is totally something that I would do. In addition, there are so many contestants that I struggled to remember their names and personalities. The most popularly mentioned contestants have one-dimensional personalities and add nothing to the story.

            The so-called “love triangle” is laughable at best. Honestly, I have not idea which relationship to root for since neither guy is very appealing. Aspen’s personality is too hot and cold, and he becomes easily angered. On the other hand, Prince Maxon is awkward and stiff. However, to the author’s credit, Prince Maxon is at least not the typical, arrogant male lead of the young adult genre. Nevertheless, it is hard to tell how America, or us readers, can fall for either.

            Yet, the worst part of the novel is the dialogue. The dialogue, especially between America and Prince Maxon, is forced and uncomfortable. The author tries to make Prince Maxon sound like royalty, but instead, it just makes him sound gawky and strange. I literally cringed at one scene and had to put that book aside. I am even an awkward person, but the scene was so awkward that I struggled to read it!

            All in all, I am not a fan of The Selection. However, I am interested in checking out the second novel in the series to see if it improves. 

Disclaimer: I borrowed The Selection from my library. I am not being compensated for this review in any way! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Top Ten Tuesday: Freebie

Top Ten Tuesday is created by the blog, The Broke and the Bookish. This week's 'Top Ten' was Top Ten Tuesday Freebie, or anything that you want. I chose to do the Top Ten Books That Disappointed Me.

This is my first time doing a Top Ten Tuesday!

1. What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen
       I love all of Sarah Dessen's books. I still enjoyed this book; however, I was slightly disappointed as I felt it wasn't on par with some of her other novels. It just felt as if it was missing something and the secondary characters weren't as memorable to me as characters in her previous novels. I still like this book, but simply not as much as her other ones.

2. My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick
       Since this book recieved so many rave reviews, I was sure that I would like it to. However, after reading it, I was majorly disappointed, as I didn't like it at all! I didn't like the characters, I didn't like the plot, and I didn't like the romance. I don't know why, but this one just didn't do it for me.

3. The Selection by Kiera Cass
     When described as a mixture of The Hunger Games and The Bachelor, I expected tons of drama, catfights, and some dystopian elements. What I got out of The Selection was an unlikeable heroine, a stupid love triangle (I'm not a total love triangle hater, but I did not particularly enjoy this one), and an extremely awkward prince. Not a fan at all.

4. Matched by Ally Condie
       This book had so many great reviews that I was sure that I would love it. I like it, but I do not love it. I appreciate Condie's writing style, but it didn't completely blow my mind. I also was not entirely impressed with the series as a whole either.

Click here for my review on the Matched Trilogy.

5. North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley

      I literally wanted to read this book forever. So, imagine my disappointment when it did not meet my expectations. I enjoyed the geocaching element and the characters were decent. But, it just was not what I wasn't expecting and I didn't find it as great as other readers described. It is still a good book, but my expectations were a bit too high.

6. The Lying Game by Sara Shepard 

      I enjoyed watching Pretty Little Liars on TV when it first came out (I stopped watching for a few episodes and never caught up so I stopped watching it)and my mom was a fan of The Lying Game series so I caught a few episodes. While I like the book better than the show, I expected lots of drama out of this, but I just did not like it. Much of the drama is pointless and I didn't feel like I was on the edge of my seat as I was while watching Pretty Little Liars. I think the book would be more interesting and mysterious if Emma narrated rather than Sutton. 

7. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

      I love The Hunger Games. The first two books were amazing, so I expected the third to be amazingly awesome as well. But... It was just average. For me, it moved slow and wasn't nearly as good as the others in the series.

8. Pants on Fire by Meg Cabot

      I love Meg Cabot's The Princess Diaries series and many of her other books. Out of all her books, this is by far my least favorite. Although I liked parts of the book, I didn't like the protagonist. I couldn't really connect with her. For me, this is a huge disappointment from Cabot since I typically love and relate to her protagonists.

9. The Juliet Club by Suzanne Harper

      I wrote a letter to Juliet and even got a response, so this plot intrigued me. However, this book wasn't what I was expecting at all. I enjoyed the setting, but other than that, it left much to be desired, which is sad because it had a lot of potential.

10. Take A Bow by Elizabeth Eulberg
      I really enjoyed The Lonely Hearts Club. It's funny, empowering, and just plain fun to read. So, it was a no-brainer to pick up Take A Bow. However, I was not impressed. It was just an average book and nothing really stands out from the book for me.

Disclaimer: I am not being compensated for this article in any way. All thoughts and opinions are my own!