Books for a Delicate Eternity

I had heard a lot of things about The Selection before reading it. I had read negative reviews, glowing reviews, mediocre reviews. And, to be honest, I just wanted to see where I would fit in with these thoughts on The Selection. I wanted to read the book, as well. Of course.

I liked The Selection. For me, there was nothing horrible about it, nor was there anything superbly fantastic about it. It was good enough to have me read it in one day, but not good enough to have me fall in love with it.

I think the characters are what drew me back from this novel. I wasn’t a particular fan of America. Besides the fact that I didn’t like her name, I thought she was pretty shallow, and thought quite highly of herself. SPOILER Towards the end of the book, she says she won’t choose between her two love interests for her. Uhm, I’m sorry. So you’re just going to string these two guys along, for you? That’s kind of ridiculously selfish, if you ask me. END SPOILER Whilst there isn’t anything wrong with accepting the fact that you’re good-looking, admiring your own beauty is a little too self centred for me. For this, and a few other reasons, I simply could not gather up any especially warm feelings towards our main character.

Or her two love interests.

I thought Maxon was shallow. In personality, that is. I thought it was unbelievable that he would have fallen for America after she yelled at him, and kicked him in the groin etc etc. And his ‘adorkable’ speech felt REALLY put on. I didn’t think it was cute, I actually kind of thought it was lame. I know there are people who adore this guy, but I just can’t see why. He’s pampered, naïve, and kind of annoying. Sure, there were some pretty cute moments with him in them, but the fact that he’s still off kissing other girls whilst proclaiming his feelings for America ticks me off.

In the beginning of the book, I was ALL TEAM ASPEN. I thought he was cute, and I loved the fact that he wanted to take care of America, and his family, and all that other stuff. And then pride reared its ugly head, and I went off him. Like, dude. Please. All she did was buy you dinner with her money. HER money. She can do whatever she wants with it, and if she wants to freaking make you a dinner, EAT IT FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY. Don’t yell at her and then break up with her. Jerk. And the thing that happens towards the end of the book – totally saw that coming. But it was still kind of cute-ish.

There wasn’t a lot of spotlight on any of the other characters, except for your token bitch, and the token nice girl. Celeste (beeatch) could have been a lot worse than she was, and Marlee (nicey) was alright. Nothing particularly special about her. For me, anyway.

The whole book was focussed a lot on dresses and makeup and girly things. I thought this was okay, since that’s what the Selection is all about, but I would have liked some depth in there, as well. I mean, the whole ragamuffin attackers thing could have been explained a bit more, and the castes were really interesting but kind of took a backseat. Nonetheless, I am still looking forward to The Elite.

© 2014, Chiara @ Books for a Delicate Eternity. All rights reserved.