The Elite (The Selection, #2)

by Kiera Cass

[violetpeanut]

Ughhh.... I was holding out hope that I would like The Elite more than I liked The Selection, but sadly that was not the case.

One of my main problems with the first book was the lack of world-building and that is about the only part of this book that was improved upon over the first. We learn much more about the history of the country and how the caste system was set up, and about why things are the way they are. Although some of my questions from the first book were answered, I still don't really feel like this world is real. It doesn't seem fully fleshed out to me.

In The Selection, I didn't really feel strongly about any of the characters. In The Elite, my feelings towards America, Maxon and Aspen are much stronger - but not in a positive way. America drove me nuts throughout the book. She was wishy-washy and whiny and selfish and I just did not like her very much. Aspen was manipulative and took advantage of America's insecurities. Maxon, who I liked the best in the first book, completely lost my support with his actions and then his flimsy explanations.

There's a little more action in this book but nothing is really described so I wasn't all that excited. Even the ending was somewhat disappointing to me. That Maxon takes beatings from his father but can then convince him to let America stay just didn't make any sense to me. I was hoping for some better reason for her to be there in the end. In my opinion, America needs to go back home and forget about both guys. Or leave and join up with the more peaceful Northern resistance.

Reading this book was frustrating to me. I'm now invested in the plot so I want to keep reading to see what happens next but these characters have personality flaws that make me dislike them, the world they live in still doesn't seem quite real to me, and I think (as I did with the first book) that the writing is somewhat juvenile. There are some neat ideas here but I'm just not a huge fan of the execution.

I will probably read the final book at some point but it will be a loan from the library rather than spending my money on it. As I said in my review of The Selection, I think tweens and young teens would probably love this book and fans of the first one will definitely love it as well. It just wasn't for me.