What's up reader dudes, the following is a lovely little book talk on the second book in The Selection series. If you have not read the Selection, or at least read my review of The Selection, it is highly likely that none of this will make sense to you. So, WAIT, STOP! Read the book! Come back later and don't get spoiled and allow your rad reader-ness to expand!! If you have already read The Selection and you are here to see if you should read The Elite, the short answer is yes, but the long answer is the majority of this review until the spoilers. Not to fear though, I will let you know when things get spoiler-y!!
Let the discussion commence!!
Okay, so this book took me like a minute to read because I just absolutely love these characters and this idea so much. I was just as invested and enthralled as I was for the first book which I think is exciting and a major win because it is often that I read a banging first book only to be duly disappointed with the following ones in the series *cough cough* Insurgent (but that's okay because Allegiant was phenomenal) *cough cough.* I am so in love with the series thus far that I devoured it in the span of what felt like seconds. I wish this book could last forever, as I fear that I will be emotionally in shambles after I read the last one. I digress...
This book follows our same main characters-- mainly America and Maxton as well as the other girls participating in the selection and the others in the castle. So, we have 6 girls left in The Selection: America, Marlee, Kris, Natalie, Celeste, and Elise... Kind of annoying to me that Maxton is still keeping the others in the castle when it is SOOOO obvious that he and America belong together. However, I understand why he is doing so incase America goes off the rails, he needs a back up plan which I get because honestly America was absolutely erratic throughout the entire Elite ordeal. As we get closer and closer into the character and their plot development I greatly fear that Kiera Cass will rip my heart out by not having America and Maxton together in the end. One of my greatest fears to be honest.
As far as the world building is concerned, circumstances are a little confusing with the rebels and the government and the different regions. I know that this isn't the focus of the book, and that I preach that books can just be fun sometimes and that they don't need to have intense deep rooted worlds, but it would be nice to have a surface level summary at least. However, I see that it is not important to the story line and that it is likely that we aren't told much because we are seeing things through America's eyes and America -given her caste- is likely not as educated as she should be about circumstances. Regardless, I would like to know a little bit more. I think it would be interesting!
America has grown into... well... a rather frustrating character. She is somewhat of an emotional reck recently, and I think we all know who I blame that on. Drum roll please... The one, the only, the most selfish and my personal least favorite character thus far in the series.... ASPENNNNNNN :(. You know who is back in America's life and just as toxic as ever. America throughout the entire novel fears she is not enough to be princess and our main man Aspen reaffirms each and every one of those bad vibes. If I've said it once I've said it a million times. Aspen. Is. Risking. America's. Future. Because. He. Is. A. Selfish. Indecisive. Inconsiderate. Jerk.
Maxton and America will be having a perfectly lovely moment, a perfect moment that emphasizes all the reasons why Maxton is a good, faithful, kind, essentially perfect person and amazing prince to his country. Then, all of a sudden, America remembers that Aspen is now in the castle, close to her again, and it makes it harder for her to get over things. She wanted space and Aspen won't give it to her so she is messing up all these perfectly wonderful moments with Maxton and it is driving me CRAZY (in the best way possible though, the kind of crazy that makes me want to read more ya know)! I swear if she says one more time "I need timeeeee blah blah blah" I am throwing my book at a wall.
OKAY, WE ARE GETTING TO SOME SPOILERS
After Marlee is punished for her crime and America explodes into another emotional whirlpool of wreckage, although I respect her loyalty to her friend, she gives no time to think rationally, to have someone explain the circumstance to her. She doesn't let anyone tell her the truth because she is so headstrong to only believe what she wants to. It is infuriating. I stand by her decision to make a scene during the public display, but I cannot agree with how she acted afterward. Had she let Maxton explain everything to her, and had she not acted so stubbornly and abominably annoying after the fact, a lot of her problems would not have risen. Actually, come to think of it, between her exposing Maxton's secrets about the secret book and the secret room, and all of her lies with Aspen, and her "going out with a bang" project, America is a pretty terrible person in this book right now. I get it, she is very confused because of what Aspen has done, and emotionally volatile. She is young and in a situation she never asked to be in. Thus, obviously stupid choices are going to be made.
As far as her "going out with a bang" philanthropy project, eliminating the caste system, I felt like that was a little annoyingly out of character. I thought it was going to be a lot cooler than it actually was. She hyped it up wayyyyy too much, and honestly it was very out of character. Her, having suffered the tribulations of poverty and being doomed to a low class, I thought her to be more caring. I thought she would focus on something that would seriously benefit her people and what she actually did was just selfish.
This is obviously no dig or insult to the actual book or the writing or the characters. Like I said before this is less so much a review and more like that of a book talk. The fact that this book evokes such emotion and investment from me goes to show how greatly and immersively it is written. It is awesome how much I've gotten into it and grown to care for the characters! Those are the major aspects of the book that I noted to touch on. Besides that the majority of these and charachters stayed the same as addressed in my first review. I gave this book 5 stars on GoodReads and it deserved every single point of it! I would recommend and praise this series a thousand times over and will be finishing The One ASAP!
Keep on reading rad readers!
- C8 :)