Review: The Selection series by Kiera Cass
11:46
If I had to sum up this series in one word it would be addictive. These books read just like reality TV, and they really are pretty similar to them. This selection to me is The Bachelor meets The Hunger Games.
This dystopian series is set in a
post-apocalyptic U.S. (a world war was mentioned) and a caste system has been
put in place. A 1 is royalty and an 8 is essentially homeless. America Singer
was born a five, a working class performer, destined to a life of entertaining
the higher castes.
35 girls from all the castes are drawn from
a raffle to come to the castle and one of them will be selected by the prince
to be his bride, and America is one of them. This process of Prince Maxon
selecting his bride is broadcast to all of Illea, keeping them docile and in
their place – inspiring to see a 5 plucked out of her caste and given the
chance to become a 1. This is where the similarity to The Hunger Games was for
me.
*SPOILERS BELOW*
The Selection
Rating 4/5
I finished this book within 12 hours of
starting it. I though this was the best book in the series, much more happens
in this book than any of the others, and America experiences her entire world
being flipped upside down
The love triangle emerges between Prince
Maxon, Aspen (America’s boyfriend from home) and America in this first book. A
lot of people have complained about America’s indecisiveness in this book but I
thought her indecisiveness was a realistic response.
The Elite
Rating 3/5
The Elite starts when Maxon has narrowed
the girls down to the top 6, and this is where America’s indecisiveness started
to get a little bit frustrating. This book focused a lot more on the rebels and
the attacks against the royals. To me
this book followed the trend of the second book generally being the weakest in
the series and simply being used as a bridge to get to the third book.
The One
Rating 4/5
The love triangle was frustrating to me in
this book, although it made sense in the first book where Aspen just arrived at
the castle it was dragging on a bit by the 3rd book, and I would
have loved to go into the book to shake America. But his book was most
interesting for me from a political standpoint – it investigated much more how
Illea come to be and America struggles not only with being in the spotlight and
if she really wants to be Queen but has to decide what type of country she
would like to run and how she would work to shape it if she is selected by
Maxon.
Although this series wasn’t completely
original and was riddled with troupes it was very entertaining, and
un-put-down-able. If you are looking for an easy fun read this is such a good
series for that.
I have just purchased Happily Ever After by
Kiera Cass which is a bind up of novellas of a bunch of characters. There is a
novella from Maxon, Aspen, Queen Amberly and Marlee along with an epilogue and
a bunch more – this book is definitely on my February TBR.
And to anyone who just can’t get enough of
this series, I’m sure you have heard about The Heir, the daughter of Maxon and
his wife going through the selection herself with 35 men (think the
bachelorette) This is also a 3 book series with the next book, The Crown, being
released on
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