Date Read: April 27 2013
Release Date: April 23rd 2013
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Bought
Genre: Dystopian
My rating: 
Synopsis:
“Thirty-five girls came to the palace to compete in the Selection. All but six have been sent home. And only one will get to marry Prince Maxon and be crowned princess of Illea.
“Thirty-five girls came to the palace to compete in the Selection. All but six have been sent home. And only one will get to marry Prince Maxon and be crowned princess of Illea.
America
still isn’t sure where her heart lies. When she’s with Maxon, she’s swept up in
their new and breathless romance, and can’t dream of being with anyone else.
But whenever she sees Aspen standing guard around the palace, and is overcome
with memories of the life they planned to share. With the group narrowed down
to the Elite, the other girls are even more determined to win Maxon over—and
time is running out for America to decide.
Just
when America is sure she’s made her choice, a devastating loss makes her
question everything again. And while she’s struggling to imagine her future,
the violent rebels that are determined to overthrow the monarchy are growing
stronger and their plans could destroy her chance at any kind of happy ending.”
---
I really wanted this to be better than The Selection. As I
was reading I was trying to look for things that would make me give it more
stars. I WANTED to give this more stars. But sadly, The Elite fell short of
hitting the mark. Whereas I read The Selection in one hit and found issues with
it, I still generally enjoyed it. Unfortunately, with The Elite there were so
many times I was so frustrated I just wanted to put this down and stop.
America frustrated and annoyed me like never before. She was
pathetic, constantly just diving into things without considering the
consequences and as much as I tried to like her compassion, there are times and
places for it – her displays were not the right times. Call me callous but when
someone is about to receive a public whipping, a 17-year-old princess candidate
running out kicking and screaming is not going to receive any results. If
anything, it would only get her in trouble and deem her inappropriate to handle
such situations. If she was actually the princess then sure go ahead as she
would have the right, or if she was just a normal plebeian the consequences
wouldn’t be dire. Again I draw comparison to The Hunger Games. When Katniss did
something like that, it never annoyed me, but America? I wanted to knock some
sense into her. A combination of their different situations and personalities
can be attributed to my reactions to the two. Whereas Katniss came off as
strong, America just seems weak to me. She was too naive, not fit for the
princess role. I liked that she tried to tackle the bigger picture but she did
so in a way that brought about negative results more than anything. Overall I
thought she was just stupid.
“The thought sent me
into a deeper hysteria. I screamed and kicked at the guards, but all that
accomplished was the loss of one of my shoes.”
The way she’s stringing along both boys was extremely unfair
and pissed the hell out of me. She can’t make up her bloody mind and yet she
can’t let them go either. See one boy with another girl? Claws come out/cry
like a baby. Seriously? Grow up. The boy isn’t even dating you woman! The only
decent character in this whole thing is Maxon. If America had some grey matter
in that pretty head of hers she would have chosen him ages ago and be done
with. God woman, just admit your feelings for him and be done with it. Aspen
already broke your heart once and it's already evident he can't accept a sweet
gesture from a girl. But no, she can’t stop going back and forth between them.
“My feelings about
Maxon. Maxon’s feelings about me. Whatever was going on between Aspen and me.”
“For weeks American,
you’ve asked me for more time, and I gave it to you without question because I
had faith in you. Please, I need you to have a little faith in me too.”
I also thought The Elite would finally take a more serious
path in regards to the genre it's been placed in. Maybe some more political
juice as well. But again it was all too light and fluffy, shrouded amongst the
frilly dresses of girls who had no idea of the extent of the war outside the
lovely palace. Cass is always just skimming the surface of issues. There’s a
real lack of depth to everything that’s happening. I can sometimes see the
post-apocalyptic elements trying to get through, but it’s not enough, they’re
not being explored or dwelled upon. If this is all meant to be a build up to an
epic finale in The One, there's not going to be much of a show down in the
final book as there hasn't been enough seriousness in these first two.
“Over and over, by any
means they could find, the warning covered the walls. Beyond that, the level of
destruction was elevated yet again. I’d never seen what the rebels managed to
do to the first floor, only to the hallways near my room.”
I still want to know how this ends though so I guess I’ll be
braving The One.
