21.6k reviews for:

Udvælgelsen

Kiera Cass

3.84 AVERAGE

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

man this book was fast and so entertaining and I'm totally in love with it!
adventurous challenging emotional lighthearted medium-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: Complicated
adventurous fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
lighthearted medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced
lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Cute Twinkie read. Nothing particularly offensive, but nothing particularly meaty, either. America veers sharply into Mary Sue territory, but the "just be yourself" message is sweet. I just wish it were more subtle. Same with the foreshadowing.

Needless to say, I'm totally sucked in.

2012 Rating: 4 Stars
2021 Rating: 2 Stars

Kinda minor spoilers TLDR:
This book is the "junk food" of all books. You just keep reading it, even though you know you're probably losing a few brain cells doing it. Everything is pretty much terrible in this book, but it's still a little fun to read it so you can laugh at how cringey it is.
It's like watching a train crash (but... not as violent). This is a fairly simple read. As long as you don't take the book or yourself too serious, it's a decent read if you're wanting something light-hearted to pass the time.

Recommended for age 16+ and fans of 'The Princess Academy', but 'The Bachelor' style with a bunch of catty and immature girls + extremely sappy romance(?) in general. If this does not sound appealing to you, please, just do not read this book. You've been warned.

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For Christian/Conservative Readers who are wondering if they should read this book, I give minor spoilers below on the book's content.

Book Content w/ Minor Spoilers:
-There's 6 kiss scenes (More than a few a bit intense that made me even blush)
-2 uses of the "h**l"
-6 uses of the "d**n" (or it's variants)

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Thought and Spoilers Below:


Plot: 3.5/5

'The Bachelor', but takes place in a dystopian America ruled by a monarchy with a caste-system. It's honestly just a grown-up version of 'The Princess Academy'.

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Writing: 2/5

It was okay. Pretty juvenile. Passages that segued into America's thoughts were not done smoothly at all.

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World Building: 1.5/5
-Info-Dumps galore. Constantly. It just doesn't stop

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Characters' Rating: 1/5

Main Character, America:

Least favorite MC I have ever read.

Her whole POV summarized is...
"I love Aspen" - "I don't like Aspen"
"I don't like Maxon" - "I like Maxon" - "Sike"
"Aspen's back" - "I like Aspen and Maxon"

And, besides constantly thinking about food, that's it. Seriously.

And yes, I understand she's 17. However, she's incredibly immature for someone her age.


Side Characters:

I cared for no one in this book.
Maxon is sometimes funny, but then other times cringey or creepy. Still miles better than Aspen, however.

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Overall Enjoyment: 2/5

As a teenie totter reading the romance, I ate it up. Reading it now.... It's pretty bad. However, I only cringed 19 times in the book! Much less than I would've thought.

Loved:
-That failed kiss scene makes me laugh every time I read it

Nitpicks:
-Chapter 2, Aspen and America '"romance". Just no.
-Chapter 3, America said she got five hours of sleep. Yet in Chapter 2, she said she had met Aspen at midnight and had spent hours with him
-Aspen and America have been talking about marriage. Why would it surprise America that Aspen was saving up money to do so?
-Chapter 5, dramatic fight between America and Aspen feels cheap and forced drama. It's on par level with "New Moon"
-I hate that books have a double standard of it being bad for males to hit a female, but it's almost romanticized for a female to slap a male. Please let this trend die.
-"My dear". Ew.
-I would've kneed Maxon too, he was acting pretty creepy in Chapter 12
-The fact that the country is trying to find the next Queen from a bunch of immature and catty teenage girls
-"I'm choosing me" cliche
-The love triangle

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Notable Quotes:
-The upper castes would wear khaki and denim from time to time to change up their looks, but it was always in a way that took the material to a whole new level. As if it wasn’t enough that they could have pretty much whatever they wanted, they turned our necessities into luxuries.
-This was the man who was going to lead our country: the guy rendered useless by tears. It was too funny.
-I had spent the afternoon replaying what I’d said to Maxon. No wonder I’d never had any friends. I was shockingly bad at it.