Just Another Bookish Blog

The Selection - Kiera Cass 
The Selection is about America Singer, a girl from a low-caste family, who is fairly poor yet good in the arts, who receives an invitation to be drawn for the Selection. This is when a group of 35 girls are chosen to 'compete' for Prince Maxon's hand in marriage, and to become the next queen. As America is of age, she is eligible to be chosen. However, being secretly in love with Aspen, America wants to refuse. She only signs up when he insists that she does so, and that her parents bribe her with some money. Being selected would help her family financially, as they would be paid compensation.

America is selected, and starts living the palace life to help her family. She doesn't expect it, and, through trying to stay herself, she gradually gains a special interest from Prince Maxon himself...

Hmmm... I'm not entirely sure what it is I think about this book. I didn't adore it, but I didn't hate it... =p

So start with the good or the bad?

Lets start off with what I liked. I liked the way it was written. It was nice and easy to read, and written in a way that flowed with the storyline. The storyline itself was fine, and I enjoyed the idea of the author!
A lot of people say that they didn't like the names because of their strangeness, but that is one of the main reasons that I did like them. ^^
I enjoyed reading it for the most part, and am curious to know what happens next.

However, I felt that it was a bit... disappointing. /:
TO EVERYONE WHO LOVED THE BOOK I'M SORRY IT JUST WASN'T MY THING!
I picked this book up because I've been seeing it everywhere. A lot of booktubers and bloggers have been saying great things about it, so I thought I'd give it a try.
I think that my main problem is that I couldn't help comparing it to other books. The interviews with Gavril constantly brought me back to the interviews in The Hunger Games, the whole castle atmosphere, and America's family atmosphere kept making me think of Red Queen... Its like I was annoying myself while reading it.
Another thing I didn't like so much about it is that the characters were hard to become attached to, or seemed to superficial. Maxon seemed like a really cool guy some of the time, but other times, he just seemed too clueless about humans, and too typically 'stuck-in-a-castle-learning-about-military'-like. Aspen, although a main character since the beginning, just seemed to be.... there. I didn't feel like he had a very important role. America was one of the better characters, but she would quickly change from being herself, to being not-herself when the other Selected girls were around.
Lastly, the book kept referring to things happening outside the castle - the US in an agreement with China, the rebel attacks, and the different social levels of all the castes. I feel like these were too mentioned too briefly, and think that elaborating on these small factors could add some very interesting substance to the story.

Thats it for my part! See you soon! :D

Currently reading Half Bad, by Sally Green

This book completed the "A book with a love triangle" challenge!