The Elite

Not as bad as the first book. The focus shifts slightly from dresses and boys to politics and history. There are actually scenes that make you want to keep going until the conflict is resolved, which never happened in the first book. The cast has shrunk considerably so the other girls actually get some characterization beyond “sweet” or “Asian” or “slutty.” It's still not great but it's improved enough that I'll stick it out to the end.

With tighter writing and editing, this trilogy could easily have been one good book but everything has to be at least a trilogy to get published these days.