Title: The Elite (The Selection #2)
Author: Kiera Cass
Publication
Date: April 23rd 2013
Publisher: HarperTeen
Format: Paperback
Pages:
323
Rating: 4/5
Blurb: The hotly-anticipated sequel
to the New York Times bestseller The Selection.
Thirty-five girls came to the palace to compete in the Selection. All but six
have been sent home. And only one will get to marry Prince Maxon and be crowned
princess of Iléa.
America still isn’t sure where her heart lies. When she’s with Maxon, she’s
swept up in their new and breathless romance, and can’t dream of being with
anyone else. But whenever she sees Aspen standing guard around the palace, and
is overcome with memories of the life they planned to share. With the group
narrowed down to the Elite, the other girls are even more determined to win
Maxon over—and time is running out for America to decide.
Just when America is sure she’s made her choice, a devastating loss makes her
question everything again. And while she’s struggling to imagine her future,
the violent rebels that are determined to overthrow the monarchy are growing
stronger and their plans could destroy her chance at any kind of happy ending.
Review: I absolutely loved the first
book, The Selection- I honestly read it in about two hours or something without
a single break, so you can probably imagine how excited I was to finally get my
hands on The Elite. Chami can vouch for this as I sent her like ten messages
with pictures and whatnot after I bought it. I will willingly admit that these
books aren’t some literary masterpiece, but I do genuinely enjoy them, or so I
did. I feel like I should probably warn you that from now on, this sort of
stops becoming a review and becomes a little bit more like an angry rant. Also,
I can’t promise there won’t be spoilers.
Chami and I have actually discussed
the contents of this review at great length and several times during Skype
calls, texting etc. so we’ve both had a lot of time to think about this book.
The problem is though: I still don’t know how I feel about this book. I know
I’ve given it a rating of four out of five stars, but as I think about it now I
don’t know whether that’s how I actually feel or not. I’m going to attempt to
put down my feelings in words, but who knows how this is going to go.
I’m going to start with the
characters, as usual, because I could honestly go on for hours about this
subject. America- the main character of the series, I loved in book one- I
liked how she was a bit stubborn and more outspoken than all the others girls
in the competition and that she wasn’t in it because she wanted to have Maxon
fall in love with her and to become a princess. However, in this book, she
began to annoy me. Sure, she was still stubborn and outspoken but at times she
was a little bit too stubborn and outspoken (characters flaws, I know) but then
she started becoming annoying and indecisive and insecure and it got to me. Of
course, I blame all of this entirely on Maxon and Aspen- if it wasn’t for those
two then everything would be cool. Can America just not pick either of them?
Maxon was so charming in the first book (a little arrogant, but he’s a Prince
okay?) but he kind of just became a dickhead in this one. I swear he
legitimately ruins lives- not just of the girls who are competing but mine and
Chami’s (and probably other readers too). There were times in this book when I
really wanted him to be a real person just so I could walk up to him and hit
him in the back of the head with a really heavy book until he wasn’t a dick
anymore. Aspen was no better- every time I thought things were going to be
alright with America and Maxon, he would just appear out of nowhere and make
her question everything all over again. I mean, what the hell are you doing Aspen?
JUST GIVE UP! I’m not even Team Maxon- I’m Team Nobody to be quite honest. I
think the reason I hated them both was because of the way America was acting-
she thought they were being dickheads- so everything they did seemed worse than
it probably was, she couldn’t make up her mind between them- so I couldn’t make
up my mind between them. Just no. Get
yourself together America and just pick one already! Or even better, don’t pick
either of them.
Okay, character rant over. Now onto
the plot. I didn’t enjoy this one as much in the first one- in The Selection, I
felt like there was a bigger focus on the dystopian aspects of the world around
America and friends, but in this one it felt like that good stuff sort of faded
away. It was still there, don’t get me wrong, but it seemed more background
information rather than a key plot. Honestly, in this one, almost everything
seemed to revolve around the romance side of things- whether it was between
America and Maxon, America and Aspen or Maxon and the other girls. I would have
really like to see more about the troubles in the world on their own rather
than having it relate back to the romance.
All in all, I don’t really know how
I feel about this book, at least not in proper words. This book makes me both
extremely happy and extremely angry at the same time. I both love it and hate
it. How on earth are you supposed to give something like that a proper rating?
I’m holding onto the hope that the third book, The One, will give me a little
bit more clarity about how I feel about the series, but until then I’m going to
leave it at this.
