The first book of The Selection series was totally mind blowing. As the # 1 New York Times best selling author, Kiera Cass has written one of the most addicting novels I’ve ever had to pleasure to read. When I first started reading, I didn’t want to put it down until I finished it. Cass is someone who understands what readers like in a book. The plot isn’t really hard to predict, since she leaves little traces of hints throughout the story as it progresses. However, Cass never gets too overboard and only reveals what is going to happen when the actual actions really take place. In addition, by inserting several scenes that could very well be considered the climax, the author had successfully captured my utmost attention.
The Selection is a dystopian novel that consists of numerous poor people who either are unemployed and living theirs lives on the streets or untalented which would leave them without proper income. Beside this situation that is very relevant in this book, everything else is like a Cinderella story. Something to note is that there’s a caste system which is like a ranking chart for people of various upbringings. It is ranged from one to eight where one is like being royalty and eight is like the people fallen to poverty with diverse reasons. Every prince from the royal family, when reached a certain age, has to marry a common girl in order to strengthen the bond between the ones ruling and the citizens being governed. This year, The Selection is going to be holded. Every girl between the ages of 16-20 are able to enter despite their castes. Ultimately, only 35 girls from each part of the country is able to actually advance to the next part where they get to live in the palace and interact with the prince.
Our heroine of the story, America Singer, is a Five which is only one caste up from the people who rarely earn anything. Although, she is eligible for The Selection, she doesn’t want anything to do with it. Her mother, however, is very needy and begs America to enter the contest because she thinks that it’s a good opportunity. It is said that even if the girls who enter the palace aren’t chosen as the princess of the land, their lives will still change forever, since their castes will improve tremendously. This would help America’s family, due to the fact that they are poor.
I loved America. Although she is not very cheerful nor elegant, she possesses a very strong and positive character. She is someone that is caring and lovable rightly so. Despite her personality, she has a terrible secret that no one can or should know. As the book progresses, this secret was constantly reminded. One thing to understand is that America really didn’t want to participate in The Selection even if there’s next to no chance of her being one of the 35 girls selected to enter the palace. However, that opinion may soon change once she gets to know the crown prince himself. Lastly, I wanted to say that I had wished the book was longer. Good books deserve to be recommended, and The Selection series are one of those. I promise that this novel is more than what you could ever imagine.