The Selection (The Selection, #1)

by Kiera Cass

Also on Miss Book Reviews.

---


America Singer lives in Illea, a country where it's people are divided by castes. These castes determine the work you do, the pay you earn, the life you live, they influence you're choice in the person you marry, you are judged and looked at by you're caste. America and most of her family are a five, their family business is the arts and they barely scrape by each week.

The Selection is coming up and every female between the ages of sixteen and twenty have been mailed a form to enter. The Selection is where thirty five girls, one from each province, are chosen to become one of the lucky girls that gets a chance to fight for the Prince's heart and to become the next queen of Illea. The girls that are chosen will get paid for their time in The Selection, money that lower castes need desperately.

America really does not want to enter, especially if there is a chance she could be chosen even if it means her family will get to live comfortably for a while. She's in love with her secret boyfriend, a boyfriend that is a caste below her. The idea of leaving him to fight for someone else's heart when she has no interest in the Prince is an idea that makes her feel sick. Yet what can she do when she promises her boyfriend she will enter?

At first I really liked America, I thought she was lovely, kind, caring and I loved that she wasn't nasty like some of the other girls. I do think those were great qualities. But then I realised that that was all on the surface, thinking about it now America was a pretty shallow character. Or maybe it was just her indecisiveness. She couldn't make strong decisions about what she wanted or who she wanted. She never bothered to look far enough, it kind of felt like she wanted her cake and then eat it too. In the end she came across as selfish, indecisive and weak.

I liked Maxon, I thought he was a pretty decent guy. But then I also thought for being a prince that has been isolated from the outside world, didn't meet or talk to or hang out with normal people much, and was always cooped up inside thinking of strategic plans to fight off the rebels or protect Illea's people; he was just too nice and too open, too willing to let thirty five random girls into his heart. He didn't even have any qualms about it. He liked the idea of The Selection. 

I didn't feel like he was the right type of character with that background. It felt like he let people take advantage of him, like he didn't have a strong point of view in himself. He was just living his life according to how everyone thought he should, it was as if he was resigned to the fact that that was how he had to live his life, and really didn't mind. Although that was a down-side I still did really like him. He was sweet and caring...

Aspen. I'm really not sure how I felt about this guy. I thought the way he treated America was unfair. Then again I guess it was understandable. Still, I'm not rooting for this guy.

The world was believable and I really liked the idea about the castes. I thought everything was set up well, it was easy to comprehend and it was very easy to believe. I would definitely like to know more about what state the world is in now though, I want to know more about the rebels and more about the different countries.

This book was definitely an easy and fun read. I was drawn in straight away and was never pushed back out, I turned the pages furiously wanting to know what happened next, I never once got bored. The writing was easy to understand and pictures were easy to see, but I did want a little more description about what certain places looked like.

I wanted more description about what America was thinking or feeling in that moment. I wanted America to question herself more about her decisions and what she was really doing, I wanted her to discover something about herself. I wanted more than the surface view.

This wasn't the most well written book and nothing was very deep. It was written well enough to enjoy but not so amazing that it blew your socks off.

So I love the cover, yes that was the first thing that drew me into this book. I'm a sucker for pretty covers!

When I first started reading this book I really liked it. It was fun, easy to read, entertaining and laugh-out-loud funny but I after I finished reading it I knew there was something missing. Yes it was a fun read, yes it was entertaining, yes I could not put it down but something was nagging at me.

I realised there were actually quite a few things that annoyed me. The whole book suddenly felt like we had only read the surface of what was going on, we were never shown anything deeper than what we could see (Well were deliberately shown). Therefore it gave the effect of a hazy dream with nothing that was outstanding when I think about it.

I could see a tiny resemblance to The Hunger Games. But only with the likeness of certain aspects. The Selection was a little bit like THG reaping, although it was very, very different, and Gavril reminded me of Ceaser Flickerman but once again there was only a tiny resemblance. Overall this book was nothing like The Hunger Games.

This book was definitely The Bachelor style, although I don't like The Bachelor type of shows, I still really enjoyed this one. But I did feel like there could have been more of a competition in the book. It doesn't feel like that much of a competition at all really. America had Maxon in her hand from the beginning, that was way too easy.

This book was also barely Dystopian, I think more of that could have been played. I'm hoping the next book in the series does explain more about the world they live in and the crisis it is in.

Overall I really did enjoy reading this book. Yeah there were things that I now think about that could have been done better but at the end of the day this book was just fun to read and I personally really enjoyed it. That's what I had expected when I picked up this book and I was not disappointed by that.

This was the type of book that I had needed to read really, you know when you've just read all these complicated plot twisting books that it gets confusing and you have to really think or you're moved so emotionally that you have to take a break altogether? Or when you've just read a whole load of books that didn't grab your interest at all and all you want is something you can metaphorically just fall into the pages of and just be happy to do so? To me, that was this type of book. And that is certainly NOT a bad thing!

I found myself laughing out loud a lot and I got what I had expected out of it. I think if you go into this book expecting something as amazing as The Hunger Games then you will be sorely disappointed. But if you go into it knowing that it's a light, fluffy book where you can just have a bit of fun and enjoy it then you will enjoy it for what it is!

I recommend giving this book a go if you're looking for a fun light read where you can just sit down and get lost in the pages. This book would be easy to read in one sitting in my opinion. I personally found it very hard to put down because I was enjoying it so much!

Miss J
x