Book Review: The Selection

The Selection by Kiera Cass is the first book in The Selection Trilogy.

In The Selection you follow America. All of the eligible girls between the ages of 16 and 20 are requested to fill out an application for The Selection. America reluctantly fills out hers as she is already in love and wants nothing to do with the competition or a spoiled Prince. She ends up being one of thirty-five girls chosen to compete for a chance at Prince Maxon's hand and therefore the crown. It is a televised event (a la The Bachelor). However, once America meets Maxon, she starts to question all of the previous plans she made for herself.

The Selection takes place sometime in the future after World War IV in Illéa (some distant variation of the US/Canada???). I would classify is as YA Dystopian Post-Apocalyptic Lite Fantasy Chick Lit. I know, that's a lot for a book. In this world, Princesses are married off to other Kings/Princes as part of a political match. Princes, however, marry a "True Daughter of Illéa," i.e. one of the people to keep up morale. In this society, people are in a caste system made up of numbers ranging from One (royalty) all the way down to Eight (the homeless). What you do depends on your number. People usually marry someone of their same number or some lucky girls gets to marry up into a higher number. When you marry you end up being the same number as your husband. And, of course, the higher the number, the wealthier you are. It is also possible (though rarely) to buy yourself up a number or two.

Our Main Character (MC) is currently a Five. Fives are artists and musicians. She is secretly in love with Aspen, a Six. Aspen encourages America to enter as he does not want any what ifs hanging over anyone's heads. They figure her chances of getting picked in the lottery of thousands of girls is pretty slim, but those that do get picked are automatically moved up to being a Three (an example of a Three would be a teacher), and of course, if you win you AND your family are automatically Ones. Also, those in the competition get weekly compensation sent back to their families. This is something that America's family desperately needs as most Fives, Sixes, and lower tend to not have enough money for food. Here is a better breakdown from the author.

So, Needless to say, Mrs. Cass has come up with a quite the world. 

The winning ladies are brought to the castle and given makeovers - pretty dresses, hairstyles, make-up, jewelry, etc...And while there is certainly competition between the girls they are told outright that no violence will be tolerated. If you hit, kick, or abuse a fellow contestant, you are OUT. Surprisingly enough, I actually liked the competition bits and how supportive some of the girls were for one another. I do not watch those types of shows. All while the competition is going on, they also have to worry about rebels, faceless rebels. What do they want? Why to they keep attacking? 

And of course our Prince is not at all what America expected. At first she just wants to be his friend, but does she really want to be more?

This is the type of book where you will either really hate it or really like it. I really liked this book and sped right through to the end, where I promptly wanted to throw the book (I read it on my Kindle, so I didn't) against the wall. Cliffhanger, much? So, while I would highly recommend this book as a little fluff chick lit, I wouldn't recommend reading it until the second book comes out in April 2013, so you can move right onto the next one. And please be aware, the books cuts off right when you are starting to get to the good stuff. I will definitely be checking out the second book, The Elite, when it comes out on April 23, 2013.

I can't think of any other books to recommend based on this book. I have heard, that if you like this book, you will probably like Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas, but I can't confirm that yet as I am still reading it.

My Rating: