Kiera Cass’s “The Selection” is one of those book series that you either completely adore or aggressively side-eye. Imagine “The Bachelor” but make it dystopian, with a monarchy, a caste system and a side of political rebellion. It’s dramatic, tropey and great.
Seventeen-year-old America Singer thinks she has her life all planned out. She’s saving up to marry Aspen, her childhood love whose lower position in Illéa’s caste system puts their romance under scrutiny. But her plans go off the rails when she is given the opportunity to compete with 34 other girls for the heart of Prince Maxon. Initially it takes lots of convincing from her overbearing mother and boyfriend to get her to apply, but she eventually gives in. At the start, America wants to do anything but win; however, as the group of girls becomes smaller, and her friendship with Maxon grows, she is torn between two options: live a life of comfort and wealth at the palace with Maxon, or live with her “true love,” Aspen, and go to sleep every night hungry.
Like many other YA novels, these books are filled with all your classic tropes: “she’s not like other girls,” “the mean popular girl who wears too much makeup and shows too much skin,” “the love triangle” and many more! While these elements are cliche, they didn’t stop me from reading book after book. They captured a certain charm that made it easy to get invested in the characters and a storyline that flowed between cliffhangers.
The heart of this story focuses on the budding romance between Maxon and America. Throughout the books, we see Maxon gain more confidence in himself while navigating the pressures of being a future king, and we see America struggle with her feelings between her past and her possible future. And, of course, this wouldn’t be a YA dystopian romance novel without an extremely dramatic love triangle. Aspen, America’s first love, shows up at the palace as a guard, and suddenly, it’s an all-out emotional battlefield. I mean, if you’ve ever wanted to scream “JUST PICK ONE” at a book, this one will make those precious books feel like nothing.
But romance aside, the series also juggles a political revolution, class struggles, and mysterious rebel attacks. One of the things I liked about this book was how well it balanced the romance with the larger political conflict. The caste system in Illéa is harsh to say the least, and while the love story takes center stage, the books don’t ignore the rebellion and societal issues. In fact, those are some of the many things that Maxon and America bond over! That being said, don’t go into this series expecting a deep, well-developed dystopian world like “The Hunger Games” because even though the world-building is there, it’s definitely secondary to the romance.
America is fiery, stubborn and sometimes completely oblivious to what’s happening around her. Her personality can be a bit frustrating at times—one minute she’s completely against the competition and the next she’s jealous of the other girls who are actually trying to win. But even though she makes some questionable decisions (like not immediately choosing Maxon over Aspen *eye roll*), I still found myself rooting for her. Also, major shoutout to her for accidentally starting a revolution just by being too opinionated on live TV. Iconic.
Prince Maxon is… going to my hall of fame of fictional boyfriends. At first, he’s perceived as your typical sheltered prince who is clueless to how the world works outside the castle walls, but as the series progresses, he becomes a much more layered character. I really appreciated that he wasn’t just the “perfect love interest.” He had his own struggles, especially with his father’s expectations and the whole “picking a wife on reality TV” thing. His dynamic with America is actually one of the better relationship progressions I have read. They start off as friends that made a deal, and their relationship slowly builds in a way that feels more natural than a lot of YA insta-love stories.
Listen, I get that first loves are supposed to be hard to let go of, but Aspen spends the entire series being where he absolutely should not be. He breaks up with America because he doesn’t want her to sacrifice her future for him (yeah, that’s noble I guess), but gets mad when she moves on? Then he joins the palace guards and just…lurks? The love triangle on his end felt like it dragged on way longer than necessary, but if you like that kind of angst, this book delivers.
Another character nitpick I have is that some of the side characters were one-dimensional in the beginning and didn’t get to grow until the very end. For example, most of the other girls in the game fall into typical archetypes that the book itself called out, “The sweetheart, the perfectionist, the diva, and me.” But, the classic “mean girl,” Celeste, did surprise me by the end, and America’s friendship with Marlee (another girl in the competition) was sweet—which I appreciated since so many YA books focus solely on romance and don’t build friendships at all.
All in all, if you are looking for a book with intense political intrigue and complex dystopian themes, this probably isn’t it. But if you want a light, dramatic and highly entertaining series that’s essentially “The Bachelor” meets “The Hunger Games” (minus the actual hunger), then “The Selection” is worth the read. It’s fun, it’s messy and it will definitely keep you turning the pages. My final rating: ⅘ stars. Would I win the Selection? Probably not—Maxon would think I’m too obsessed (because I am), but I’d have fun watching the drama unfold anyway.
