The Selection

This book is likely the unholy love child of "The Hunger Games" and "The Bachelor." I wasn't expecting Shakespeare, but even as a guilty pleasure read this was unsatisfying. There's little to no internal consistency in the world building. The protagonist mentions that her family struggles to have enough to eat, but somehow there's enough that she's holding food back to pass along without going hungry herself. The class system firmly divides the population, except that they all seem to think and talk alike - the only difference between the highest and lowest in the selection appears to be how snobbish they are, which one wouldn't expect with the supposedly vast difference in opportunity and education that they would have received. show more There's no time given to establish a sense of place either. I couldn't tell you anything about the location of the protagonist's home or the palace. All of this makes it hard to care what happens in the book, although in reality almost nothing actually happens in this book. It is entirely set up for the rest of the series - there's no self contained story here and the protagonist ends the book with the same dilemmas and "struggles" she had from the start. I enjoy an occasional mindless read, but this is just plain bad. show less

I was in the mood for a YA book and since this one is so popular, I figured it’d be a quick and good read. Oh boy was that wrong.

I just had such a big problem with how the author straddled present day culture with the supposed futuristic dystopian world they were in. It’s post World War IV, which happened because we were in debt to China and they invaded us to get their money back (come on lady, you don’t need to know jack squat about history or economics to know how dumb that is), and yet they still wear jeans, watch tv, ride in limos and have regular jobs? Not a hint of new technology, new lexicon, anything remotely new except she layered a caste system on top of our current society.

The names - you have May and Gerad and Magda show more and Aspen, but then you name the main character America Singer, who, you guessed it, sings, and lives in what used to be America. But here’s the thing... it’s not some society-wide tradition of having your last name reflect your job. It’s just this girl with the smack you on your nose name for no apparent reason.

Speaking of in your face, America was so unbelievably shallow and fake demure, as was the “be yourself” messaging. This was Hunger Games meets the Bachelor with about half the charm.

2 stars because I finished and I reserve 1 stars for books I hate so much that I can’t get all the way through. I don’t get the popularity, but I should’ve known better I guess. show less

3.1 / 5

i am resisting the urge to curse colorfully in the first sentence of this review, but it’s hard not to. this book was up there for me when i was 13, and i have extremely fond memories of reading this series. HOWEVER! returning to this as an adult is beyonddd disappointing.

think of this as “the bachelor” for fans of dystopian fiction, only it’s terribly written and low key misogynistic. actually, i guess that would make it just like “the bachelor.”

let’s start with the political context - the story takes place in illea (stupid name!) which is just the united states of america from the distant future. i think it’s mentioned that we got into it with china or russia and eventually some guy “saved” us all so we show more renamed the country after him???? and made our entire democratic structure a monarchy / caste system once more???? i’m sorry this entire section of the lore just flew right over my head. not only did it not make sense, but at times i actually laughed out loud at how far fetched and cringe the political shit is. oh my god i’m nauseous just thinking about it. I’m hoping the next couple of books do some serious damage control…

even ignoring the hideous and often reductive worldbuilding, this book STILL falls flat with its characters. america pisses me off SO MUCH - she doesn’t believe in the caste system, but then happily participates in it when it benefits her?! she could not be less interesting to me - the only reason i suffered through this book at all was the tiny simmering hope for character development in future installments.

america and her love interests have 0 chemistry. absolutely none. this book is literally so tame and non sexual most of the time, and that’s FINE, but i could tell it was trying (and failing) to be sexy.

can i mention the castes for one second please.. first of all, the idea that occupational groups can be sorted like this is utterly fucking ridiculous. there’s essentially zero mention of race, which, yknow… doesn’t seem right! everyone is assigned a caste at birth (one through eight). premarital sex is literally against the law. it’s dystopian, but nowhere NEAR as serious as it should be, given these restrictions and rules from the gov’t. and for prince maxon to act like he has no idea what’s going on in the country? baaaaad look. like, this book is just a mess politically.

and then. to be totally honest. i don’t like the way women are written in this book! i know a woman wrote this, but sheeeee kind of made it seem like all the women in this world except for america are people pleasing airheads. and she makes them seem extremely emotional? i just! i felt like her depiction of women was fairly predictable and stereotypical. and america “not being like other girls” didn’t actually make me like her more. if anything it made me root for the rebels.

characters? unlikeable. boring. bland.

plot? RIDICULOUS. redundant.

so why would i read this? one word: consumability. damn it if this book ain’t hella consumable. oh i just ate it right up. sometimes what you need in life is a terrible book with pretty dresses and hot men and nothing else of substance.

i honestly feel like 3.1 is kind of generous. but i read the whole thing and quite enjoyed the process of hating it, so. 3.1 it is! show less

Okay. Where to start with this one? I could literally go on forever about how awful it was.

Here, I'm just going to summarize:

1.) Terrible writing - This book was very poorly written. Rather juvenile stylistically. Almost all the descriptions were telling instead of showing, and the book couldn't define a setting to save its life. I have no idea what any of the major locations in the book actually looked like.

2.) Terrible structure - The beginning of this book dragged on forever; it started WAY too early in the story's timeline. The inciting event didn't even take place until about 20% of the way in.

3.) Terrible protagonist - "America Singer" was so Mary Sue-ish, I wanted to slap her half the time. And there was nothing about her show more character I found compelling.

4.) Cliches - Good Lord, the number of cliches in this book...

5.) Poorly developed dystopian world - Yet again; one of my biggest issues with YA Dystopian. And this time around, it was bad NOT because the author didn't explain its origins but because its origins were...well...STUPID. I have never heard anything more ridiculous than the explanation for the creation of the dystopian country in this book. It makes no sense whatsoever.

6.) Love Triangle - Enough said. I'm tired of talking about crappy love triangles.

7.) Repetitiveness - The events in this book just went around and around and around, with almost identical things happening over and over again in slightly different contexts.

8.) Poorly developed rebellion - Why is this a running theme with YA Dystopian?

9.) The sexism - There's a heaping pile of sexism in this "dystopian" society. And its existence is, of course, NEVER explained. Not once.

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Upsides?

1.) Witty Banter between Maxon and America - what kept me reading.

And...that was it. That was the only thing I liked about the entire story. Yeah.


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Overall, for me, this was just a badly written, cliche-riddled, extremely boring excuse for a YA Dystopian novel. I have never rolled my eyes so many times reading a book as I did in the first HALF of this book. The funny dialogue between the two main characters might have kept me going, but that doesn't mean I didn't loathe the rest of the book. It was...bad. There was no other way to put it. The plot wasn't compelling. The dystopian environment wasn't interesting. Most of the characters were horribly cliched or just poorly characterized. The writing didn't hook me.

I give this 2 stars for the occasionally witty dialogue (and the pretty cover).

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Rating

2/5 show less

It's like The Bachelor meets the biblical book of Esther, with some occasional rebels trying to kill everyone, but in the future in a post-USA country with a numerically based caste system and a cheesy love triangle. And, against my better judgement, I strangely loved it.

The Writing and Worldbuilding

The writing wasn't anything special, but the romantic tension was well done and the silly parts honestly made me giggle out loud and grin like a fool. I really found myself enjoying this.

It was really hard to remember what time period this was supposed to take place in, and it felt more almost fairytale medievally, and much less futurey. A lot of that had to do with the prince's dialogue, the clothing, and the general structure of the show more country, but I don't live in a monarchy, so I can't really say if they're actually like that or not, can I? I can say that it felt a bit separate from reality, like a fictional European Hallmark movie kingdom. The threat of the rebels and how slowly they moved only increased that strange out-of-time feel; didn't they have cars? Cross country car travel doesn't take weeks, especially from the southern US to mid-East coast. I can go from Seattle to Salt Lake City in less than a day, though the West is a lot less populated between those two points than the East coast. But I've also never been to the East coast, so I guess I can't really say for that, either, can I?

The Characters

America Singer: I have to admit, the moment I read her name in the blurb, I rolled my eyes so hard I almost saw my own brain. But I found her nice and relatable, albeit a bit brash and somewhat annoying sometimes, but I also had to remind myself that she's 16, and therefore allowed a certain degree of immaturity.

Maxon: I loved Maxon! He's so sweet and somewhat awkward and he's just my baby and I love him. While his dialogue and actions made him a tad cliché, I didn't mind at all. He was caring and probably more woke than most people in his position, or at least more open-minded.

Aspen, or as I like to call him, Pigpen (or another name I dare not type): He was so annoying! Like, I understand his desire to provide, and how that lack made him feel immasculated, but like, dude, cool it with the neediness, okay? Let America choose herself and move on already.

Marlee: I have the deepest suspicion that she's secretly gonna betray America, or is actually lesbian; one or the other—or both! Both would be pretty interesting. (Or she could be in love with someone else, like another guy, but this is too white and straight atm, which normally doesn't bother me too much, but this genre usually has more diversity and substance, sooo)

Conclusion

This was literally the last book I ever planned on reading—and I was obvious about it too! I was that hypocrite jerk who trash talked and rolled her eyes without having even tried reading it first. And for that, I apologize. After reading a review that finally gave me a better idea as to what genre this even was, and needing something a little lighter than my usual preferred books (which tend to be quite dark and depressing), I decided to read this, and I'm very glad I did. It made me smile and laugh, and was altogether fairly wholesome and fun, albeit cheesy. I'm not particularly eager to read the sequel quite yet, but I know I will eventually. I suspect this series and I will have an off-and-on-again kind of relationship. show less

What genre even is this? The sequels were at the YA fantasy section at the library, but this is not fantasy, is it??? YA dystopia seems more like it.

And wow, is it like every other YA dystopia we've ever seen. Four pages in it was exactly like the Hunger Games, except with castes instead of districts and The Bachlor instead of Battle Royale. I mean gods, a mom the herione doesn't get along with, some kind of draft/selection, a dad who is distant but better than the mom, younger sibligs that need protection, a boyfriend with an even poorer family that she sneaks out to meet blah blah blah.

Honestly, it is kinda trash, but it's trash like if you went dumpster diving and found a newly thrown out full tub of Ben & Jerry's or something. You show more know it isn't exactly good for you, but you'll still eat it and enjoy it while it lasts.

While America (I can't get over that that is her name) annoyed me at first with her "other girls are soooo stupid" and lame-ass boyfriend, we actually fucking saw her grown out of that!?!??!?! By the end of the book she and almost every other girl in the Selection acknowledges that they are all awesome, that they would all make good princesses and that competing is sad when they should all just be friends. It's like ... I love it!?!?! I can't remember the last time I saw this EXPLICITLY SPELLED OUT in a YA book and no matter of the rest of my critique I'm gonna recommend it to people for that reason.

Another thing I liked was the way America was picked for the Selection: that her picture was taken just after she got what she assumed was the best news of her life and couldn't stop smiling and looked totally happy and in love and shit. Idk, it seemed like a pretty good reason that her photo would stand out a little.

I'm also gonna assume that America will eventually end up with the Prince (rather than her lame-ass misogynist boyfriend - gods I hate that guy so much) and that's another score for this book, because we actually see them become FRIENDS first. Yes, I thought the whole "I'm not interested in winning but I can be your confidant"-speech was kinda dumb, but then they went on to actually become friends?? Like, they laugh together, they discuss serious stuff together, confide their feelings and shit. I love it, I really do. Because what we're getting here is (hopefully) a romance based on friendship, liking each other and mutual respect (though they've got some ways to go), rather than "we immediately fell in love and we're super-attracted to each other but all we ever do is stare longingly into each other's eyes and sacrifice our lives for each other". Kinda like Four and Tris in Divergent (not so much in the sequels).

Ofc, at the end America made some stupid decisions and we do get some kind of love triangle, but she's still very much in control of her own life and that's good enough for me. "I'm not choosing him or you, I'm choosing me!" You tell him, grrrrllll.

Still, I don't fucking know how they're gonna drag this shit on for two more books and we'll see how this series progressess. You can see most of it coming and it is, as I said, basically just The Bachelor Games. show less

Review originally published on my blog: AWordsWorth.blogspot.com

I really was not sure what to expect going into this reading, other than the cover is gorgeous. I've heard taglines like "The Hunger Games meets the Bachelor", but since I've neither read nor seen either, it didn't help me out any. What I got was a story with more depth than I expected. America is one of 35 girls selected "randomly" to compete for the hand (and heart) of Prince Maxon. It's the world's weirdest beauty pageant, if you will. But it's more than that - America, as a member of one of the lower castes, helps Maxon see what's really going on in the country he's to take over. They form an unexpected friendship, and in turn, Maxon shows America that not everything show more she assumed about him was correct either.

There's a lot going on in The Selection, and a lot of history and mysteries are only hinted at. It definitely sets readers up for the next novel in the series, and I for one will be picking it up to see what happens. America started out a little whiny and delusional (heh), but she started growing on me as she started engaging her brain. Prince Maxon I love. And Aspen...don't get me started. (Not a fan.) Safe to say this was a pleasant surprise. show less