When America receives a letter from the crown prince of Illéa, inviting her to take part in the Selection process, a televised competition where 35 girls are chosen at random to compete for the hand of the prince in marriage, initially she resists signing up. There exist two rebel groups, one in the North and one in the South, that routinely stage attacks on the palace in the pursuit of an unknown goal. The royal family works to maintain their hold on power in order to keep the peace within Illéa's borders. Political struggle is a constant fact of life under the monarchy. America is a singer and is also proficient in a number of instruments, particularly the violin. The Singer family struggles to meet their basic needs in the Illéan economy. Women take on the caste of the men they marry.Īmerica Singer is a member of the Fifth caste, which was made up of artists who rely upon the financial support of patrons of higher castes. The only means of doing so are amassing immense amounts of wealth or participating in an advantageous marriage. It is nearly impossible to rise in the caste system. For those in the lower castes, this means being denied an education and being forced into positions of servitude. In this system, one's caste determines which kinds of professions those in it can dedicate their lives to. In the monarchy of Illéa, formed out of the remnants of the USA in a post-apocalyptic world, a strict caste system restricts freedom and condemns most of the subjects of the monarchy to lives of poverty.
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It received a 4/5 overall from me because I really liked the character development and complication of relationships in this book.The Selection is the story of the life of a 16-year-old subject of Illéa, America Singer. If I didn’t have the last book already to continue reading, I probably wouldn’t have too happy. It was interesting but I kept waiting for more to develop, the world they lived in and the plot to develop more. However, I felt like it wasn’t as satisfying as it could have been. I did enjoy the second book of The Selection novel as well. It just felt like a lot of filler chapters. I also felt like the plot was a little dragging out in this book. For example, America thinking to herself how she used to be a Five then went into an explanation of the caste system. It was kind of annoying to see all these concepts get re-introduced.
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I really disliked the “reintroduction” of the concepts of the world in this book.
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I also felt that there more details about Maxon as a person which I really enjoyed.
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There was more of a focus, which is good. Since there aren’t that many girls left, we were able to learn to love the few characters that are left. The character development in this book was really good! I liked the way that the characters had developed. In this installment, I felt like the writing style was much more smoother than the first book. However, she is not the only one, the prince himself also has to make a choice. In the second installment of the series, America continues to struggle between her choice of Maxon or Aspen. If you haven’t read The Selection (Book 1), I would suggest you don’t read this book because it may contain spoilers if you haven’t read anything from The Selection series. This is the second novel of The Selection series. *I purchased this book with my own money* Genre: Dystopian, Young Adult, Fiction, Romance