Every now and then a book shows up all over my news feed on every social network with a really enticing cover (and often featuring a beautiful dress.)
It’s a book everyone seems to have read except me and often there is a love-hate division; on Goodreads, The Selection has a pretty set line of love-hate, but unlike other books I’ve encountered like this in the past, I really enjoyed The Selection.
I can understand why some people left less-than-positive reviews on Goodreads if we’re trying to compare it to The Hunger Games. Some similar ideas are played with in The Selection, but in an almost completely different setting. There’s no fight-to-the-literal-death here.
It’s basically a beauty pageant–with higher stakes. The winner becomes queen. Simple, right?
Unlike many others, I didn’t find it a frilly or stupid read. I found in it a straightforward plot; the simplicity of the characters was often a breath of fresh air.
Why does every character need to have fifty different layers? Why can’t we just read a story without peeling everything back? Yes, some of the characters lack depth, and yes this comes nowhere near The Hunger Games or any other dystopia I’ve ever read (mind, I don’t read a lot of dystopia.)
But you know what that means? The Selection is unique. It’s fun. It appeals to the girl in me who’s always wanted to be a princess. It made me smile and kept me turning the page. I didn’t once have to go back and pick up a fact I perhaps missed. I was able to read this book and just enjoy it, swoon over certain characters, hate others–just be a reader.
I think sometimes we forget to just be readers. We compare books and take pleasure in hating on perfectly good stories. But I don’t see where all the hate comes from here–The Selection didn’t disappoint me, and I’m just waiting for time to read the next book in the trilogy, because this book has an awful cliffhanger.
That’s my only gripe about The Selection. The cliffhanger–and ten pages of advertising other books which I found a waste when they could have been filled with more of the story! Ugh.
5/5 stars for an enjoyable read that made me laugh and swoon.
Mariella Hunt 
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