msulli22 's review for:

The Selection by Kiera Cass

2.0

---

Even though it is entertaining, like Cinderella, it is important to keep in mind that The Selection is more of a fun story than a good life lesson on how to do relationships. So, it is troubling that The Selection is a YA novel intended for young girls rather than for adults with some experience in the dating world. In today’s modern society, seventeen-year-olds should not be worried that their entire lives will be ruined if they do not get married to the love of their life soon. It is also now generally considered a good thing if teenagers do not base their entire futures on someone they started dating a couple of years ago at the age of fifteen. In The Selection, this is presented as both a normal and desirable frame of mind. Additionally, it is not-so-subtly implied in the book that getting married is a good way to be allowed to have sex, because sex before marriage is bad. Now, think what you want about waiting until marriage, but getting married for the sole purpose of being allowed to have sex is a BAD IDEA. If you are going to teach teenagers to wait until marriage, it’s probably a good idea to teach them all of the other reasons beyond getting to have sex that makes marriage desirable. The Selection touches on some of those reasons, but the writing about those reasons is subtle, and the whole theme of “marriage is good for teenagers, because they get to have sex” just buries everything else.

It is also implied that a person’s self worth is heavily connected to remaining a virgin until marriage. Granted, in The Selection, it is the law of an obviously corrupt country that mandates everyone wait until marriage. However, the problem is that the main character-- who questions the fairness of just about everything else about the society she lives in-- does not spend a lot of time dwelling on this particular issue. Despite spending one sentence feeling vaguely positive about a girl who got pregnant before marriage escaping from prison, the main character steadfastly refuses to have sex solely because that would make her a criminal, and that would in turn make her a BAD PERSON. Her choice to not have sex does not seem to be rooted in anything except that it would make her a criminal. This is the only issue where she has moral qualms about breaking the law. She casually breaks other laws and social standards without thinking twice. The one character where it is implied that she has had sex before marriage is a straight-up villain. There are ways to encourage teenagers to wait until marriage that don’t equate people who do not wait with immoral criminals.


Despite those not insignificant thematic flaws, The Selection is a fun dystopian romance with a FEW positive points. The main character, while not a Katniss Everdeen, is still capable, even if she does dwell on who her future husband should be. The book’s totalitarian caste-driven government drives a discussion on social justice, poverty, and self-determination, although, again, those themes are not explored as poignantly or as in depth as they are in The Hunger Games. The upside of this lack of depth is that the reader will not be emotionally drained at the end of The Selection. However, there is enough detail that the reader is still drawn into the dystopian setting. Sometimes, people just need a relaxing but adventurous escape. So, if you want to read something like The Hunger Games but just don’t have the emotional energy to expend on a story like that, this is the book for you.

TLDR: Read if you like fantasy romances and want to turn your brain off for a while