We're going to start this post off with a little bookish confession: I'm not a library user. I don't even have a library card, and I haven't checked any books out of any library since I was a child. I'm a slow reader and I don't need the pressure of deadlines in my reading life. But in January, when the book club decided to read The Selection by Kiera Cass, I borrowed my husband's library card, got me down to our local library in town and checked out the trilogy. I didn't really have any personal desire to read these books, and I figured they would be a one-off for me.
(SPOILER: I was right.)
The Selection, The Elite, and The One by Kiera Cass were published in 2012, 2013, and 2014 respectively, and from what I can tell, the trilogy is pretty popular with its demographic. There are a couple other books in the series along with several spin-off novellas. Every person that I know who has read these loved them, so my opinion is definitely in the minority on this set (although I found plenty of my people in the Goodreads review section).
In The Selection, we are introduced to 17 year old America Singer who through a series of absurd unfortunate events, finds herself in the Selection with 34 other young ladies who are in a Bachelor-style competition to marry Prince Maxon of their dystopian country Illéa. America has recently broken up with her secret boyfriend Aspen and really has no interest in marrying Prince Maxon because she's so above all this and is only participating so she can get some good meals and help financially support her family back home. (Can you just see me rolling my eyes?)
A lot of people have described these books as a cross between The Hunger Games and The Bachelor. I've never had any interest in The Hunger Games—books or movies—and I find the concept of The Bachelor completely inane. So it didn't come as a shock to me that I couldn't get into these books. On top of the fact that the content wasn't my cup of tea to begin with, I found the writing rather juvenile, America to be an entirely unlikable character, and most of the plot hilariously predictable and impossibly convenient. The books weren't hard to read, and I can see why girls might find this series entertaining, but I found America's flip-flopping, spineless, wishy-washy attitude tiresome by the end of the first book and nearly unbearable by the end of the second. I didn't think any of the characters were written with any consistency, and Cass didn't develop any of the remotely interesting plot points she dropped in the book. It just didn't work for me.
My book club was less than impressed with my complete lack of enthusiasm for these so I'll reiterate that my opinion—at least among the people I actually know in real life—is definitely in the minority. I'm glad I was able to find them at our library so I didn't waste any money on them and was able to return them for someone else to enjoy. But these just weren't for me, and I wouldn't recommend them. (Book Club, please don't kick me out.)
Have you ever come to blows with a friend over a book that she loved and you didn't?
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