The Selection

Before I explain my rating, I must admit, I am not the target audience for this book. I would say teen girls would probably enjoy this story just fine, but as a writer, I feel that even if a subject is juvenile, it will last far longer when written well. This, unfortunately, is not. The story itself is not horrible, in fact, if I could give half-stars, this would be 2 1/2, because it has the seed of something interesting, or I would never have been able to finish it. I will not be picking up the Elite, however. One book was more than enough to tell me this is not the world for me.

The main character is somewhat interesting, as is the world, but I fell that a good editor would have helped both (and in doing so, the plot) in being far more interesting to the reader. She's a typical teenager (even though she shouldn't be, given the caste system she supposedly has lived under her whole life) who wants only to be with her (secret) boyfriend, even though she knows why she shouldn't. It's not atypical, and works well enough for the character, but I feel that it would fit far better in a modern-day story, rather than the futuristic dystopia that Cass is trying to shoot for here.

Her family and neighbors are little more than stock characters–mother and father taken almost directly from Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice but for their names. Her siblings are little more than a token to show that she's from a lower-class family. Even their names seem too obvious and not at all thought out, particularly their surname, Singer. Are all families in this world named for what their ancestor was known for? If not, it feels overly pointed, and quite unnecessary. Far more interesting to make their name something more unique or drawn from today's pop artists. Lennon. Shelton. Spears. Something more than Singer. The neighbors are barely mentioned at all, aside from her boyfriend, and his family is only mentioned in connection to him. There's no depth at all to these characters. They don't exist without her notice, and so are nothing to the reader, even though we know she must have known them her whole life.

The Selection itself is like a castrated Hunger Games. The girls all leave wealthy and better-off, if not happy, and one of them will become the next Queen. She tries to give it a bit of bite by adding the love triangle, but really all it does is make you shake your head at the teenageness of it all.

She simply does not act right for someone of her class, and the excuses the author gives for her actions do not ring true. And there are other moments. The maid's fright when it comes to the Rebel attacks on the castle seem far overblown for what she experienced, which granted, ended up being quite bad when she finally explained it, but the way it was initially explained gave far too much background that was unnecessary before we got the truth of why she was so scared. There are secrets being kept all through the novel, and yet much of the time, the author seems unable (or possibly unwilling) to share them in a way that seems to help the story along. Instead, she focuses on the banal love triangle, and never gives us the true impetus to care about these secrets. Perhaps the sequel will do so, but I for one won't find out.

I would not recommend this to anyone over about the age of 20.