The selection- mini book blog

Dear Reader, 
while reading the OWLs I got to read the first book in the Selection series, which was a very awaited read for me. 
I brought this book around a year ago from my local Waterstones and haven't really thought about it since, haha. But I finished My life next door and was scanning my shelves for my next read and boom their Miss Americana was staring at me screaming 'READ ME WITCH I'VE BEEN SITTING IN THIS DUSTY SHELF FOR A WHOLE YEAR' and instead of looking awaaaayy like I always do,  I picked it up. 

Hmm-so, this book made a few things clear to me...

I am so fudging bored of princesses; dystopian books are sort of dead at this point; I don't care how gorgeous your fictional prince is if he isn't Rowan you are wasting my time.

Did I like this book? Sure, I guess you could say that. I mean, I ordered the over two books after I read it so I can't say I didn't enjoy it. 
I'm the type of reader where I laugh at the book, I gasp at the book, I do that weird fan-girly squeal when my ship gets together and I think about the book constantly when I'm not physically reading it. But this book? I literally forgot what was happening the minute I put it down, I was just not routing for anyone. I didn't care about prince Moxon or that guard guy- what's his name? Okay, this is what I mean. I just didn't care, like at all. However, I still enjoyed it when I was actually reading it.
Confusing? Yeah, I know. Kind of hypnotic. 

One thing that was quite good in this book was the writing style. It really flowed and it was like the author wasn't relying on the plot to make the book good, which my God do we see a lot in dystopian fiction. Not loads of world-building, but what can we really expect when the books about 300 pages long. Character development wasn't strong- but we had an idea for America's feelings about her friends and family. The gradual romance between Maxon and America was sweet and well built up, one of the better bits of the book was watching her feelings change for him because it was conflicted and we had different aspects to think of, for example, guard guy and her new friends that were also part of the selection. Kass built America's friendship with the girls in the selection while she was also brewing a romance between her and Maxon which I think worked wonders for its predictability and made the book a more worthy read. With M and A, I found their moments together were my favourite to read however as I said, I had no commitment to them being end game. 

It was around the 1/2 way mark I realised there are 3 books in this series and I was excited about that because I thought that in the next 2 books she would already be with prince Maxon and we would be world-building and fixing major issues in this whole 'cast' system. It was when I was around 30 pages away from the end I realised- that was not the case. At this point, I had already ordered the books and I let out the biggest groan of my life because I didn't really care if she ends up with prince Maxon or the other guy.  It's not a strong enough plot by far to publish 3 books on and It's not really worth reading about. 
But the thing is- these books are crack. Literal, princess and night in shining armour crack, which is the most addictive crack. So, of course, I'm gonna read them, it's not even a choice at this point- I have to. 
And that is what I want to congratulate the author on doing. She took the most over-done trope in all dystopian literature mixed it with a not even that interesting plotline and created the most readable, snuggle up with a tea and blanket and devour in one sitting book. And that my friends- that takes real talent.    

So let's give it up for Keria Kass because she managed to get me to read 3 books about an indecisive 
singer. 

Till next time, 
Love Issy 
x



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