Review: The Elite (The Selection #2) by Kiera Cass

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.

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.”

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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.