12.7k reviews for:

The One

Kiera Cass

3.9 AVERAGE

adventurous emotional sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I finished this sucker in about 3 hours, I feel like Sonic.

Anyhoo, I had read The One so long ago that I scarcely remembered anything in it except for the outcome of the romance, so it was a good read if only because I didn't recall every detail. I think book #3 is the strongest of the trilogy. It has a stronger focus and sense of purpose. My only complaints are that the author once again used the "random misunderstanding causes drama" thing for added tension and that this book really glosses over how the rebels work into helping Maxon and America and all that. In fact, this book utilizes a lot of very convenient tropes and plot devices to ensure things unfold the way the author want and I'm kinda *squints eyes* at them for just being a bit too obvious at making all the loose ends wrap up nicely and cleanly.

I would say that overall this series is a solid 3 from me. It's enjoyable, but a little too juvenile for my tastes now and it does benefit from my nostalgia over it and the fact that it was something me and friend bonded over. I think the writing is okay, though my paperback copy does have some missing quotation marks and what not. The storytelling did improve with each book, but I can't say that Kiera Cass brought anything exceptional to the table for me personally. She has great ideas, but I feel like she's restricted in a bubble of following a format and not letting her ideas be as complex and fantastic as they could be.

It was a quick, likeable read nonetheless and overall not a bad series. Not anything amazing despite the hype and notoriety of the name, but it's worth a read just to see this big happening in YA lit from the 2010's.
emotional hopeful medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous funny hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

Mid
adventurous challenging emotional fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Nach dem eher schwächeren zweiten Teil hatte ich die Hoffnung, dass der Dritte es wieder raus reißt, aber der Anfang liest sich eher wie eine billige Erotik-Fanfiction und man kommt in die missliche Lage, sich tatsächlich ein wenig fremdzuschämen.
Glücklicherweise bleibt es erstmals nur bei dieser Szene, denn das Buch kehrt recht schnell wieder zum eigentlichen Thema zurück: Das Casting, die Beziehung der Mädchen zueinander und die Beziehung von Maxon und America. Zum Glück muss man sich als Leser nicht mehr das ewige Genörgel anhören, für wen sie sich nun entscheiden soll und sie entscheidet sich endlich für Maxon, was auch immer wieder mit allen Gründen aufgezählt werden muss, warum es gerade er ist und nicht ihre Kindheitsliebe Aspen.
Außerdem gibt das Buch endlich Antworten. Vielleicht sogar ein bisschen zu viel auf ein mal. Gerade, was die Rebellen angeht, die nach zwei Bänden nicht mehr als kurze Auftritte hatten und deren eigentliches Motiv so lange im Dunkeln blieb.
Also wird sich kurzerhand mit den Nordrebellen verbündet, die nicht mehr wollen, als das Kastensystem abzuschaffen.
Manchmal denkt man dann wirklich, America hat ihre hellen Momente und man feuert sie regelrecht an in ihrem Tun, andere Male könnte man sie wegen ihres unüberlegten Handelns an die Wand werfen.
Zum Beispiel trifft sie sich, zusammen mit Maxon, mit den Nordrebellen, gerät in einen Hinterhalt der Südrebellen, hätte dabei draufgehen können, kassiert aber nur einen Streifschuß, den sie drei Kapitel lang versteckt und der dann nie wieder erwähnt wird. Genauso wie das Straßenkind, welches sie bei ihrer Flucht aufgabelt und mit in den Palast nimmt, damit sie dort Arbeit hat und nicht mehr stehlen muss. Sie wart nie wieder gesehen, geschweige denn erwähnt in diesem Buch.
Gen Ende muss dann auch noch mal der Drama-SuperGAU kommen, wobei manche Situationen unheimlich übertrieben wirken lässt. So findet Maxon zum Beispiel über die Liebschaft von America und Aspen heraus und verhält sich prompt wie das Oberarsch, was man ihm nicht zugetraut hätte. Außerdem folgt noch ein weiterer Angriff der Südrebellen, der wenigstens ein bisschen Action mit reinbringt und prompt ist das Buch schon zu Ende, wobei die Autorin auf ein, zwei billige Tricks zurückgreift, um den Plot inhaltlich zu dem Punkt zu bringen, auf den sie nun hin gearbeitet hat.
Auch wenn es jetzt ein wenig harsch klingt und vieles noch immer inhaltlich an Selection stört, bleibt es dabei, dass es eine kurzweilige, leichte Lektüre ist, die man unheimlich schnell durchlesen kann.
adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I can't believe I actually made it through this series. You know, sometimes I get bummed out that there's so much great literature in the world, and I know that within my lifetime, I'll never have the chance to read everything I want to read. And then I go an read insipid Disney princess crap like this and kind of want to slap myself hard in the face. I blasted through this inane book in just a couple of days not because I was drawn into the plot but because the language is this book is 5th grade level. We've still got the same one-dimensional characters, some of which get two dimensions in this book, turning their personalities on a dime. Teenage girls will still swoon over these books, dreaming of themselves as America, the plucky and stubborn teenager who stays true to herself and wants to marry a prince so she can live happily ever after. Blah. Not. My. Thing. And yet, I read them all because it was mindless drivel that I could add to my "read" pile this summer. That being said, at least this series had a "strong" ending. It got a *little* interesting. But I will definitely not read any more in this series.

I can’t express how much I loved this book and the whole series. It was so beautiful reading about America and her journey and I fell in love with every single character, I’m gonna miss them so much. It probably is one of my new comfort series <3

I wanted to love this book as much as the next person but something was off… I did get to witness the HEA in the end but, something was missing and I hated that. The high rating is because despite all my criticisms here, I couldn’t put the book down, devoured it in a few hours, and it will be a comfort series for all time, despite how much of an injustice the execution of this book gave me. If you’re this far in, you aren’t looking for spoilers so I won’t.

The plot - again, everything and nothing happened in this book. It seemed like Miss Cass couldn’t wait to fit every single one of her ideas into this one storyline and I just… The shocking points? Weighed down by tons of pointless descriptions. The wow factors? Dampened by the chaos of the situation. The resolutions? Spur of the moment and COMPLETELY unrealistic. Relationship progress? Ruined by yoyo-ing emotions, thoughts, feelings and opinions. I so so wanted to love this one but it didn’t do it for me. And the epilogue/finale felt cheap and tacky. Like a button sewn over a gaping hole that couldn’t be filled by the short few pages left.

The MC - nothing will anger me more than how America acted in this book. I’m gonna role play here what exactly i’d say to her if I ever met the character irl;
America: “Hi Liv! Did you like the book?”
Me: “Fuck off. Fuck right off. Fuck off aallllll the way back to Carolina and never come out of your hidey hole ever again.”
She made me that mad. That is all.

The male counterpart - You…. He… she…. No words. Really, no words. No words can convey the absolute amount of bullshit that went through this man’s head. Well and truly, what a dickhead. You don’t get to chop and change and be a whore because that’s your “society”, fuck off with that. Whole time I hated him and only at the end did I warm to him a little.