Title: The Selection
Author: Kiera Cass
Genre: Young Adult – Dystopian? Futuristic Something?
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: April 24, 2012
Hardcover: 336 pages

Where’d I Get It: Advance copy – electronic – from the publisher

Synopsis (From Goodreads): For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth. To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in the palace and compete for the heart of the gorgeous Prince Maxon. 

But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her. Leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn’t want. Living in a palace that is constantly threatened by violent rebel attacks. 

Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she’s made for herself- and realizes that the life she’s always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined.

My Thoughts: I feel like a total stick-in-the-mud for this, but…well, I have to be honest. I haven’t written a review like this in a long time, but I made the decision a while back that I was going to review things more critically and try to be as fully accurate as possible.  So…here we go.

First, and this isn’t related to my review at all, what is UP with that cover?  Ok, yes, when I first saw I absolutely loved it. The dress! The blue! The lovely! Oh, how lovely.  But then I looked closer…and noticed that it really looks like America…or Ames…or Mer…depending on who you’re asking…is sniffing her armpits. Kind of like, “Oh noes! Maxon is going to be asking me to take a walk with him through the garden soon in my poofy dress and I forgot my deodorant!” Also, that pose – that just doesn’t seem like a pose the protagonist would take. Ya know? Annnnyway…

(Please note that quotes are taken from the eARC and are subject to change. I will not be purchasing a hard copy to verify these quotes when the book is on the shelves, and I doubt my library will have a copy fast enough to be useful. Page numbers correspond to the page numbers on my Nook.)

My first issue is with the blurb…which I haven’t actually seen, but I’ve heard was something similar to: The Hunger Games meets The Bachelor.  That makes people expect something as awesome as The Hunger Games…but I should have known that the cheese-fest that is The Bachelor would win out, here. In this case, it’s like comparing Twilight to The Last Vampire. Or, well, Twilight to Dracula. Come on, now, let’s be real.

What I liked about the book:

• The premise – it was promising! The thought of EveryDayJaneLowCaste becoming Princess LovelyDress was yay.
• May, America’s little sister –  She’s just darling, and she’s got personality coming out of her ears. Lovelove.
• There’s certain aspects of the America/Maxon relationship that are believable and I even felt that there was a bit of chemistry between them. Yay, that!
• The dresses seem pretty!

What I didn’t like about the book: 
My initial thoughts on the book were, basically, “WOW, the writing is absolutely crap.” and “This is painfully obvious. Do I have to keep reading?” There are short, choppy sentences throughout the novel and a good many fragments that made reading through the story absolutely disjointed and torturous, to avoid this type of problems you can use this word changer – seo tools centre to enhance you writing skills. Despite that, it’s still a fairly quick read.

My husband brought up this point, when I was showing him some of what I was reading..and I’m paraphrasing here: It seems as though the writing was meant to emulate the short, quick thought process of a teenager. Then, however, there’s nicely formed grammatically near-perfect sentences thrown in complete with a properly executed semi-colons… Teenagers who think in short, quick, choppy, grammatically crap sentences do not use semi-colons unless they’re typing out a crying emoticon.

Right, then there’s the rambling. Our protagonists’s mother desperately wants her to sign up for the Selection process because it will help their family out of a tight situation (they are fives in a caste system including eight castes…with eight being the lowest), and will help feed the family for quite some time. America does not want to do this because 1) she’s in love with someone else (come on, that’s not a spoiler, you saw that coming!) and 2) she professes over and over again that they’re not going to pick her anyway because she’s not awesome enough. Pish Tosh. We’ve read the blurb, we know she’s picked, why spend pages upon pages telling us that she’s not going to be picked? It’s a waste of text.

We’ve got a Bella factor going here, too. America wholeheartedly disagrees with her mother and sister who proclaim her lovely and beautiful and gorgeous. She does not feel pretty. She is only average, if that. Blah blah blah. Then…on page 14 (of the Nook, again, this is an eARC), “…I felt pretty in my little brown shorts and fitted white shirt.”  Do what? But..you just spent a bunch of pages telling us you’re not pretty! Make up your mind! Ok, so you’re pretty. Got it.

Then, at the end of that page, a newcomer says, “Hey there, Gorgeous.” and her response one page later is, “‘Please don’t call me gorgeous. First my mom, then May, now you. It’s getting on my nerves.’ By the way Aspen was looking at me, I could tell I wasn’t helping my “I’m not pretty” case. He smiled.” ARGH! d’oh. Ok, back to not pretty. Got it. (This continues throughout the book, I just stopped writing it down because I was running out of paper and I was too lazy to get up for more.)

And there’s a love triangle before this episode of The Selection even begins. I have to say, the symbolism is kind of neat. Aspen trees – you can burn them down and hack them apart but their roots are DEEP and STRONG and they will remain steadfast through all adversity! They will rise again! So we know right there that the poor boy is going to be spat upon. (Or am I reading too much into this?)

We have makeup…rationed, but makeup…but no birth control for anyone in a caste lower than Four? So the rich are basically breeding the poor so they’ll have more people to clean their homes and sing songs for them? Alrighty.

Aspen loves her. REALLY loves her. She loves him. REALLY loves him. They are in love. But he begs her to do this Selection dealio so it’ll make him feel better. Huh?

I haven’t made it to chapter 3 yet. I may die reading this.

I may be nitpicking here, but –

• page 26 – She remarks about the soccer ball in her brother’s room and his hand-me-down microscope and moans despairingly about how these things are proof he’ll never be an artist. Huh? Artists can’t enjoy sports and/or science? What? Argh! I get that in his caste, he’s supposed to be artistically inclined, but geez. The generalization there is painful.
• Ongoing issue: Still having problems with the style. We’re first person, but the writing is such that we’re alternately a prissy, always grammatically correct perfectly poised crown princess type or a half illiterate teeny-bopper. Which is it?
• page 32 – regarding a painting of Maxon – “He seemed more like a painting than a person.” Again, whaaat? She’s in a family of artistic people. Art is their livelihood. She is musically gifted. The arts, they are a THING with them. How can she imply that a painting, a work of art, is such a cold thing?
• page 35 – regarding Maxon asking his dad for advice on girls, Maxon says – “I haven’t actually. As you know, the situation in New Asia has been escalating…” Ok so they’re at war. We’ve seen hints of this all over, and they’re doing this huge The Bachelor thing? Oh come ON.
• page 36 – America says about Maxon that it’s – “…hard to imagine anyone happy with such a wimp.” GEEZ. How’d we get that he’s a wimp, now?
• page 43 – We have electricity, television, telephones… but they can barely eat?
• page 44 – They want her to take vitamins. They tell her that her body is the property of the country. They give her sleep aids. They make her promise she’s a virgin. ARGH.
• page 48 – She’s told not to refuse ANY REQUEST, kissing or otherwise, from Maxon. Seriously? Did I just read that?
• page 74 – America talking about the Selection – “I didn’t understand why it was all so important.” Really, child? You don’t? You don’t understand that some of these people are starving and trying to help their families and themselves and they see you as a threat to that? You can’t understand? You, who supposedly is well educated and speaks three languages? SERIOUSLY?
• Ongoing Issue: Why is Prince capitalized but king and queen are not?
• page 108 – Maxon does not know the statistics on citizen deaths. These statistics, he feels, are being purposefully kept from him. What? Isn’t he going to be King? Shouldn’t he know this? (Oh, wait, I meant king.)
• I was tired of writing page numbers at this point, but…the author clearly wants us to be curious about the history of this world, and sure, I am…but I feel kind of like I was just slapped in the face with a stick that says “BE CURIOUS ABOUT WHY WE CANT READ HISTORY BOOKS!!!!”

Rating: 2 of 5 (Fans of Twilight will adore this book.)

The Selection earned 5 of 10 stars over at Bree’s All The Books I Can Read.  This is why I read everything she tells me to read, because she knows good…and bad…when she sees it.