The Nitty Gritty: So its the Bachelor meets the Hunger Games, but without all the blood and running.
America Singer, a five, has been selected to compete for the hand of the young prince. Its a once in a lifetime opportunity and while every other girl in the country wants to go America doesn't.
She's already in love, with a boy from a lower caste. Forced into the competition by the love of her life who dumps her before the big day America walks into the palace intending to head back home as soon as possible, but unknowingly America is pulled into the life of a Selected, and she finds herself warming up to the palace brat each day.
America Singer, a five, has been selected to compete for the hand of the young prince. Its a once in a lifetime opportunity and while every other girl in the country wants to go America doesn't.
She's already in love, with a boy from a lower caste. Forced into the competition by the love of her life who dumps her before the big day America walks into the palace intending to head back home as soon as possible, but unknowingly America is pulled into the life of a Selected, and she finds herself warming up to the palace brat each day.
Opening Line: "When we got the letter in the post, my mother was ecstatic."
What's the 411: I will freely admit that I've never seen one episode of the Bachelor or the Bachelorette. I get stuck watching all the silly Lifetime chick flicks that my mom likes so I figure that is enough girly torture for me. So I am not sure how those shows work and I've never been inclined to watch them and this book has cemented that.
This book is hailed as a dystopia and I ain't buying it sister. Not saying that there is only one way to write a dystopia, but let's call a spade a spade. Yes there was a political upheaval, but there will always be war. The country was able to pull itself up by the boot straps and rebuild. The government doesn't rule by fear or threat, there hasn't been a drastic decline of society. Despite the claims by the narrator society seems to be the same as it is now. There are the super rich and the very poor and a nice spread in between. Yeah so I'm not buying what she's selling on that front.
This book is hailed as a dystopia and I ain't buying it sister. Not saying that there is only one way to write a dystopia, but let's call a spade a spade. Yes there was a political upheaval, but there will always be war. The country was able to pull itself up by the boot straps and rebuild. The government doesn't rule by fear or threat, there hasn't been a drastic decline of society. Despite the claims by the narrator society seems to be the same as it is now. There are the super rich and the very poor and a nice spread in between. Yeah so I'm not buying what she's selling on that front.
The Good: Hmm well it was a quick read and that was good. I like the idea of the Selection. It allows in girl int he country be she poor, rich, smart, talented, short, tall to become a princess. Its every little girls dream and it takes the real world competition of getting a husband and turns it into a fun little game for the world to see. But I would have liked to have seen Cass' critique on that system.
The Bad: Hmm well I do like a good character name and America Singer is just...not a great character name. Especially since as a 5 in the caste system America is part of a musical family and she is in fact a singer. I just think it was a little too on the nose for me and I'm just not a fan of the name America, though one of my favorite shows in the whole world starred America Ferrera.
This book is a bit thin on the action side to say the least. There isn't a whole that actually happens in the book. Since its told from the first person POV of course we are limited to the amount of action we see, but the main character likes to hide up in her room for much of the book which makes for a slow and torturous read for us.
It likenens itself to a book about a vicious competition worthy of Death Race 3000. Yes I know I am showing my age on that one forgive me. However what we get is a school yard brawl over the last piece of bubble gum. I mean the only scuffle that happens is Celeste telling America to take off her dress and give it to her. I mean serious I don't know anyone that bold and even if she was it could have been a better confrotation that what it was. I've seen toddlers thrown down better than that. And after the performance Katniss Everdeen put in we were expecting something more from Cass than what we got.
The world building just doesn't make any sort of sense. I understand China invading the United States if we defaulted on our loans. But I do not believe for a moment that the rest of the world would sit back and let China take over the world. Not that I am arrogant enough to think that people would run to our rescue for our sakes, but that is what would happen. Countries have allies for a reason. So that when they are invaded they have backup. Kuwait was invaded by Iraq and they had an ally in the United States. We went to their rescue. That's the way it works. She just glossed over that fact like it wasn't important. Well if there hadn't been that little history lesson smack in the middle of the book it wouldn't have even come up, but Cass put it out there and didn't deliver.
And how in the hell did we go from a democracy to a monarchy? There's just no explanation for it. I mean I understand that the United States had been living as the American Chinese State, but I highly doubt that American fighting spirit was crushed and that they just rolled over and died so that we could go from a democracy to communism to a monarchy. I call BS on that one. Either make your explanations make sense or just avoid them. I mean the book would have been fine if she didn't go into any explanations about how the world got the way it did. All she had to say was WW 3 and we could have drawn up our own conclusions. You can't just throw mad lib politics lines on the wall like a ink blot and whatever sticks is what goes into the book.
What the hell does the caste system have to do with anything. I mean for a country that was trying to throw off the shackles of China why would they create a stupid caste system? A system that isn't built on anything and to which nothing makes sense. After all this is a war torn country trying to rebuild itself is there a reason we are devoting entire groups of people to singing and dancing? I am all for the creative arts so don't get me wrong but it seems like there could have been a better use of time and talent in that instance.
It seems when China invaded the United States we got struck stupid or something. It just doesn't make sense. I believe Cass should have left the political science to the professionals.
And since when are countries named after people? I mean maybe its just me but I really hate that.
It likenens itself to a book about a vicious competition worthy of Death Race 3000. Yes I know I am showing my age on that one forgive me. However what we get is a school yard brawl over the last piece of bubble gum. I mean the only scuffle that happens is Celeste telling America to take off her dress and give it to her. I mean serious I don't know anyone that bold and even if she was it could have been a better confrotation that what it was. I've seen toddlers thrown down better than that. And after the performance Katniss Everdeen put in we were expecting something more from Cass than what we got.
The world building just doesn't make any sort of sense. I understand China invading the United States if we defaulted on our loans. But I do not believe for a moment that the rest of the world would sit back and let China take over the world. Not that I am arrogant enough to think that people would run to our rescue for our sakes, but that is what would happen. Countries have allies for a reason. So that when they are invaded they have backup. Kuwait was invaded by Iraq and they had an ally in the United States. We went to their rescue. That's the way it works. She just glossed over that fact like it wasn't important. Well if there hadn't been that little history lesson smack in the middle of the book it wouldn't have even come up, but Cass put it out there and didn't deliver.
And how in the hell did we go from a democracy to a monarchy? There's just no explanation for it. I mean I understand that the United States had been living as the American Chinese State, but I highly doubt that American fighting spirit was crushed and that they just rolled over and died so that we could go from a democracy to communism to a monarchy. I call BS on that one. Either make your explanations make sense or just avoid them. I mean the book would have been fine if she didn't go into any explanations about how the world got the way it did. All she had to say was WW 3 and we could have drawn up our own conclusions. You can't just throw mad lib politics lines on the wall like a ink blot and whatever sticks is what goes into the book.
What the hell does the caste system have to do with anything. I mean for a country that was trying to throw off the shackles of China why would they create a stupid caste system? A system that isn't built on anything and to which nothing makes sense. After all this is a war torn country trying to rebuild itself is there a reason we are devoting entire groups of people to singing and dancing? I am all for the creative arts so don't get me wrong but it seems like there could have been a better use of time and talent in that instance.
It seems when China invaded the United States we got struck stupid or something. It just doesn't make sense. I believe Cass should have left the political science to the professionals.
And since when are countries named after people? I mean maybe its just me but I really hate that.
America's attitude I think was the biggest flaw in this book. On the one hand she was upset that her brother broke off from the family to live his life in peace without the burden of trying to carry his family when both of his parents are perfectly capable of providing for their family and then on the other hand she didn't want to got into the Selection which would have helped her family monetarily.
You can't have it both ways honey. It was like Cass wanted her character to be the underdog, but she didn't want her to be the underdog. I want her to be poor, but not starving. Though America did act like her family was starving when in fact they weren't.
I really hate that she brought Aspen back into the picture. I just really hate these love triangles that female authors put their characters into. I just hate it and both men are always exact opposites as well.
Final Thoughts: There is nothing about this book what prompts me to keep reading this series. I just don't care what happens to America, nor Maxon, and especially not Aspen.
You can't have it both ways honey. It was like Cass wanted her character to be the underdog, but she didn't want her to be the underdog. I want her to be poor, but not starving. Though America did act like her family was starving when in fact they weren't.
I really hate that she brought Aspen back into the picture. I just really hate these love triangles that female authors put their characters into. I just hate it and both men are always exact opposites as well.
Final Thoughts: There is nothing about this book what prompts me to keep reading this series. I just don't care what happens to America, nor Maxon, and especially not Aspen.
No comments:
Post a Comment