Origin and release year: United States (2012 – The Elite of The Selection Series)
Author: Kiera Cass
Synopsis: Thirty-five girls came to the palace to compete in the Selection, and to win Prince Maxon’s heart. Now six girls remain, and the competition is fiercer than ever—but America Singer is still struggling to decide where her heart truly lies. Is it Prince Maxon—and life as the queen—that she wants? Or is it still Aspen, her first love? (Amazon.com)
About The Author
The Elite, part of The Selection series, author Kiera Cass is an American writer who specializes in YA (Young Adult) fiction.
Check out our other articles on The Selection Series here: The Selection Book Review
The Elite Book Review
Kiera Cass had us in the first half with this one. Whilst the story had a lot of repetitive narrative pattern (which is inevitable considering the nature of The Selection program in itself), the first half of the book was just as exciting as the first book of the series. Things started to take a lull halfway though and the ending was terribly anticlimactic.
For instance, the last few pages where America and Aspen have their fall out then Maxon tells America to stay, fell short of expectations. There could’ve been a lot more build up surrounding the moment and Kriss coming in to disrupt it was annoying too.
The Elite was disappointing because it felt very much like a filler book. There wasn’t much happening and it was just a filler in the fictional space to put it frankly.
This writer was also slightly disappointed in the way that the girls were written in this book. Whilst each of the girls in the Selection has their unique personality e.g. Celeste being insufferable and over-confident and Kris being Mother Teresa, it would’ve been great if we could’ve maybe delved more into their characters in the palace? Since we were stuck within the palace walls for almost the entire book anyways.
Being alone with America, our protagonist whose imperfections start to shine, the entire book is likely what made it feel so monotone – so it would’ve been nice to use this book to give more insight on the other girls that are left in the Selection (more than what was given in the book already even).
One of the pros of The Elite as a book was that it gave us more political conflict and action outside of just the pagaentry of The Selection. If we had glitz and glam before, there’s some grit added into this storyline.
Part of that gritty twist comes in when the King decides to have a personal vendetta against America because she’s rebellious and he’d prefer to have a meek candidate in the running for the position of his daughter-in-law. Honestly, the man is just uncalled for in most cases. Whether it’s with his remarks and energy towards America or just the way that he dismisses his son – he ain’t it. That’s all we have to say.
The King coming to berate America, whilst we get why he might’ve felt the need to do so, just felt un-King-like. Why would someone who has literal rebellious attacks on their hands, have the free time to be waiting in a hallway to verbally berate someone? Whilst he could totally pull off that mean monologue when triggered specifically by something when they happen to be in the same setting, it seemed strange that he would seek her out just to tell her off.
That’s about all we have to say about The Elite. Since it is the second book in the series, naturally, you have to read it if you’re intending to follow the series, but we wouldn’t go out of our way to recommend it if it was a standalone book – not that it would make sense as one.
What did you think of The Elite by Kiera Cass? Let us know in the comments!