Book 1 in The Selection series
AUTHOR: Kiera Cass
PUBLISHED: 2012
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Dystopian, romance
PREMISE: America is chosen along with 35 other girls to compete for the hand of the crown prince.
MY REVIEW: Since I know someone will most likely bring it up, I will get out my feelings out on the drama surrounding Cass first: I in no way approve of what she and her agent did or how they conducted themselves. It was childish, it was unprofessional, and it reeks of censorship. I am sorry if you got your feelings hurt by a negative review but you know what? There's a better way to handle it. Either ignore it. Or take what the reviewer said into account. More often then not, negative reviews give reasons for why they don't like a book. Perhaps that reviewer has some good points to make. Take the points into consideration and use it to improve your writing. Don't throw a fit and say the reviewer has no idea what they're talking about and then proceed to hate on every negative review you see on sites like Goodreads. It frankly will backfire on you as seen by all the backlash Cass has gotten over this from bloggers. Honestly, what has been with YA authors lately? I'm beginning to think it should be a requirement for all new authors to take a class on how to conduct themselves in public with class and dignity and how to take criticism maturely.
That all said, I'm sorry but the negative review was absolutely right. This book is bad. And yes, I have read the whole thing. The writing is passable and I will say that fans of The Bachelor/Bachlorette will probably get a kick out of this. Unfortunately for the author I detest the Bachelor/Bachlorette so that hindered my enjoyment quite a bit. Then there's the fact that other then the Bachelor parallels this is just all so unimaginative it's not funny. Don't get me started on how not one bit of it even makes sense. Especially the world building. Why on earth is the future US suddenly using a caste system that is even now being slowly disgarded in India? I don't believe this world is possible for a second and the author fails to make me believe any of it. Then there's America. She's ANNOYING. She's the typical "I'm not beautiful really" oh so perfect Mary Sue type that makes me want to scream. To top it off she's a judgemental, slut-shaming (note every time a girl shows cleavage/wears make-up America looks at her in disgust and heavy judgement), and possibly more whiny then Bella Swan. Actually, she pretty much is Bella Swan with red hair. The love interests were equally dull and frankly were douchebags. Especially Aspen who was a sexist douchebag. I despised how once again we have about zero female friendship. Remember girls: you are all in competition with one another. Female support? What's that? Frankly this book hit every one of my pet peeves starting with shoddy world building that makes no sense to boring plot that is predictable (OBVIOUSLY she's going to win; it's just a matter of how and if she'll fall for the prince or cheat on him with Aspen. Which knowing YA lately, she probably will) to utterly boring cookie cutter characters with no depth. This is quite possibly the most boring Dystopian I've ever read. Author of Wither, I owe you an apology. Wither at least has some creativity and interest.
Again, I will say this is obviously aimed at lovers of The Bachelor. So for all of you, this may be a decent read. However I wavered between being utterly bored with it to loathing it. So far, this is my worst book of 2012.
WHO SHOULD READ: Twilight fans, Bachelor fans, people with high patience
MY RATING: One and a half out of Five utterly boring dystopians
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