The Selection by Kiera Cass

The Bachelor meets The Hunger Games...but not really? I'd heard a lot of people rave about this book, but I'd also heard a lot of people say that it was aimed at younger audiences (which I honestly don't agree with) so I had mixed feelings about starting this book. However, seeing as I forgot NOS4A2 at work and couldn't read it all weekend, I decided to read one of the many books I've bought on my nook but have yet to get through. The Selection won out and I found myself hooked after the first few pages. Let me just say that when people say it's like The Bachelor, they are not lying. The story is about America Singer, a seventeen (?) year old girl who gets a chance to be chosen for the Selection, a contest where 35 girls are sent to live at the palace and compete for the young prince's heart. This book takes place sometime in the future, when the United States has gone into so much debt that China and other countries have waged war against it and the country has crumbled and resurfaced with the new name of Illea. This country has implemented a Caste system and our heroine is a Five, which means she's some sort of artist or entertainer (actually a singer/musician). Her caste is not the worst (there are eight castes, One being royalty and Eight being "the untouchables") but she explains that there are months when her family goes hungry. Honestly the only way this story is similar to The Hunger Games is the fact that it's a dystopian, but the problem with this book is that it focuses so heavily on the romance and (surprise surprise) the love triangle that we forget that there's something bigger going on. I've seen and read a couple reviews for this book and some of them mentioned that they felt the book was aimed towards younger audiences, but I didn't feel that to be true. The book actually makes a few mentions of sex, and one character suffers from PTSD due to the fact that she was nearly raped.  Even with the serious subjects that are touched on, the focus was on the romance and that made the story seem a bit shallow, but that may change in the second or third books (another surprise...it's a trilogy!). I found the book to be entertaining, but not the point that I will make every single person I know read it. I have gone ahead and bought the second book in the series, titled The Elite and plan on reading it and posting a review of it soon.


Rating:★★★
Recommendation: If you're looking for something quick to read, check it out.
Favorite Character: May Singer