Review: The Selection

Title: The Selection
Author: Kiera Cass
Release Date: April 24, 2012
Source: author/publisher

For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth. To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in the palace and compete for the heart of the gorgeous Prince Maxon. 
But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her. Leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn’t want. Living in a palace that is constantly threatened by violent rebel attacks. 

Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she’s made for herself- and realizes that the life she’s always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined.

Nancy’s Review:

Every once in a while I come across a book that captures my undivided attention and my heart. I cannot stress enough just how much this book meant to me while I was reading it. My family had to suffer through my moping around the house when I finally finished the book! I was so upset that it ended. Though I had read some other reviews online about how wonderful the book was, I was not prepared for it. I knew I would like it, just not how much. I didn’t just like The Selection, I loved it. I was super excited when, after finishing it, I remembered that it is being adapted into a tv series. It made me hopeful that even though I will have to wait a while for the next book, I’ll have the pleasure of experiencing The Selection all over again through a tv show.

Though The Selection takes place 300 years from now in a world much different from ours, I felt as if I could relate. I guess all girls can. Love and relationships are a universal thing, the same in just about any time or place. Our main character, America, dreams of marrying her secret boyfriend (Aspen), though their future seems bleak. When she is chosen to become part of the Selection, she reluctantly agrees to go. She had no desire to fall in love with the prince, as the other 34 girls did, something that made me like her even more!

America was very much what one hopes a main character would be… strong, unique, and very much independent. She was an average girl, there wasn’t anything great about her or anything bad. She was a regular person and in being who she was, America was able to make an impact on me as the reader. I felt that I could connect with her and in a way, relate to the experiences that she was going through.

The concept of the story was very interesting, it combined dystopian fiction with reality tv! I loved it. I had expected the story to maybe be a bit confusing, since not every detail can be said (I was thinking of this as a reality tv show), but it was very well described. Every important detail was mentioned and I never felt like I was missing information. The characters were also very well developed, which was surprising since there were so many of them mentioned in the story. I thought I would get lost in all the names, but Kiera Cass did a fantastic job with that. Everything in this book was great. I can’t even think of one thing that I did not like, The Selection was soooo amazing and I can’t wait for the tv show and the sequel!