Review of The Elite by Kiera Cass

I've talked a lot about how I'd been sort of reluctantly looking forward to this book. Reluctantly, because when I stop and analyze The Selection, it was a very flawed book. Unfortunately all of the flaws from the first book were only magnified in this book, and while it was still oddly readable, it left me with such a feeling of hollowness and frustration. I have long since accepted the fact that the premise of this series is gimmicky at best and downright stupid at worst, but that's kind of part of the charm for me. So why do I keep expecting something more from it?

The Selection has now been narrowed down to six girls, The Elite, who are now supposed to be really working and learning what it will mean to be a princess and eventually a queen. One of the points in favor of this series is that it acknowledges that, on some level, there is more to the job than wearing a nice dress and living happily ever after. This book delves a bit into political power and duty--I'll talk more about that later. To get back to my point, the premise has now shifted focus so that America should be competing in earnest, and not just going along for the ride while getting over a bad break-up. She should be putting her head on straight and making sure her heart is in the right place before committing to marriage to a major world leader. But that's not what America does, because America is a little girl who doesn't understand anything.

I'm not even going to touch on the fact that I have a problem with the love triangle and America's inability to decide between two boys, because that subplot is stupid and overdone and pointless as hell, so it goes without saying that I hate it. What I really want to get at is the ultimate question of: Do you want the throne or not? Because regardless of your feelings about the prince, whether you love him or just like him as a friend, what's really at stake here is enough power to slowly but steadily change your country. America does not understand this concept. She grew up in one of the lower classes, but she's only just now (now, at the worst possible moment) realizing that the caste system is brutal and unfair. What? I'm sorry, how did that basic fact escape your notice when you were freezing and eating lousy food?

But, alright, she has this epiphany that her country might have an unfair caste system. Guess what, sweetie? You're in a competition that would put you in an excellent position to help people. Yeah. You could become a princess and feed the poor and shelter the homeless and sow the seeds of change to make your country better. But this fact totally escapes America because she's all caught up in the romantic drama of whether or not she likes Maxon or just likes him. Or hates him. Whatever. Then, when Maxon appears to have betrayed her, she figures she wants to leave anyway, and tries to make a totally pointless grand gesture on live television. Maxon calls her out on this, too. He tells her, and I paraphrase a bit, yes we can and should change things, but for anything to work you have to be subtle, quiet, and not dumb as a bag of hair. And she is. Dumb, that is. Or at the very least, she's so naïve and so unworldly that she has no idea what to do with herself. It's sad.

The romance? I think it may have died for me, and I have no idea whether the third book will revive it or not. I didn't get the sense that any of these characters know who they are, let alone what they want, and I was deeply discomfited by the idea that all of this is going to culminate in a marriage. None of them are marriage ready.

So, to wrap this up, this book is a mess of characters that are becoming steadily less likable. At times it felt like it was trying to say something deep or important, but it chokes because it still just wants to be a soap opera teen drama. I'll read the final installment, but without much excitement. 3 stars.

Review of Beyond Shame by Kit Rocha

Erotica review today! As usual, this is an 18 and over review. Click below to read.

On Tarot: A Review of Poison Princess by Kresley Cole

I might as well warn you right out of the gate that I didn't like this book, even though I intended to. I was so sure I'd like it that I bought my own copy without reading an excerpt or any reviews. I'm like a cautionary tale for impulse buying.

Tough to detail the plot, since all of the legitimately interesting portions are spoilers, but...Basically, an apocalypse happens, in which the sun flares and kills all plant life and vaporizes all water on the Earth's surface, and Evie is one of few survivors. She's unfortunately terrible at surviving, but is lucky to have first her mother and then Jackson to take care of her. Jackson is a Cajun juvenile delinquent, and it's an opposites attract situation with Evie having been a peppy cheerleader in her pre-dystopian life. The plot gets (comparatively) interesting when we start to learn that Evie has magic(ish) powers to do with plants--and that there are other teens out in the world with other powers.

Positive Comments

The prologue is gripping, and the final chapter is rather triumphant. I can't deny that there are a lot of great ideas in this book. I really wanted to know about the Arcana and what their purpose in the world is. I can't deny that I'm still intrigued, and that even though I really, really did not like this book, I will probably read the next one in the series. That's how interesting the fantasy elements are.

Critical Comments

Let's start with Evie. I found it very, very hard to like, relate to, or sympathize with Evie on any level. Now, it's not like I really expect to connect directly with every heroine I read about, especially in YA. But dear God, Evie is unlikeable, and more importantly she is useless. It's fine for a character to start out useless, or weak, or cowardly, as long as they show some sort of steady development over the course of the story. But Evie does not. With the exception of her breakthrough at the very, very end, she is content to rely on Jackson for survival, even when he puts her down for being dead weight. Where is her sense of pride or self respect? Where are her survival instincts? Why should I care about this girl?

The romance did not work for me, and the main reason for that is Jackson. Jackson comes from a dirt poor background where he's had to learn to fight for basic survival--and by fight, I mean beat men's faces into their skulls. He's a bad boy...okay, fine, I like bad boys. The problem is he just doesn't come across as redeemable in any capacity. He drinks heavily, puts Evie down all the time, and hits on another girl to make her jealous. If all that isn't bad enough, I'm left with the impression that his only motivation for helping Evie is to get into her pants. At one point, when she puts a stop to their physical activities, he blows up at her, basically saying "I saved your life, the least you could do is put out!" Our hero, ladies and gentlemen! So this book fails entirely as a romance, and whether the relationship stands a remote chance of being salvaged for me in future books is doubtful.

So, there isn't a single truly likeable character...maybe the plot is still good? Yes, to a point, but the pacing is way off. The first third is spent on Evie's high school drama--maintaining popularity, having a surprise birthday party, maybe losing her virginity to her perfect boy friend...none of which shows any signs of being even slightly relevant to the actual plot. A lot of this could have and should have been slashed in favor or interesting things.

Recommendation

Unfortunately, I can't in good conscience recommend this book. It annoyed and infuriated me on so many levels. Will I read the next book? Probably. But there's no reason that you should suffer as well. 2 stars.

On Simulations: A Review of Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Guys, sometimes life stands up and smacks you in the face with it's craziness. June has been one of those months when I really want to read...but I can't. There simply hasn't been time. I just got a new job, had my bridal shower, and I'm in the process of moving...So I would no sooner pick up this book than be interrupted. To say I had some difficulty getting immersed is an understatement. Take my review with a grain of salt.

This is book two in a planned YA dystopian trilogy (I feel like YA dystopian trilogies should get their own category on this blog, there are so many).  It focuses on Tris, a teenage girl with a unique brain that makes her courageous, selfless, and intelligent--a combination that makes her resistant to simulations, i.e. mind control. This book deals in large part with the aftermath of the first book, with Tris and Four trying to decide who to trust and what to fight for.

Positive Comments:

I felt that Roth did a great job with Tris in terms of character development. Countless times in the book, Tris makes decisions that you could only describe as reckless. She's trying to figure out what it means to be self sacrificing, what it means to be a survivor. She struggles with her conscience after having to take a life. After all of that, I can see her growing into something awesome. I'm emotionally invested in her journey, and it's that more than the dystopian world building that makes this book worth it for me.

Four/Tobias is a big part of her emotional journey, and I find their romance...passable. I like the fact that it is still a love story and NOT a love triangle story, and I don't have to bring Tippy into this. I enjoyed the fact that Roth built up a conflict between them based purely on issues of identity and choice, and not on big misunderstandings or, God forbid, another guy.

Critical Comments:

It's long. It's hard for me to accurately describe to what degree it drags because, as I said above, life made reading this book an ongoing struggle for me. But I feel that even under the best of circumstances I would have found certain portions unnecessary or too drawn out. Again, don't let this particular complaint stop you.

Here's the thing with dystopians...with some of them, it's easy to imagine a possible future or other world where life really could be this way. Dystopians are "what if" boxes with a lot of stuff inside. But the more I think about Tris and Four's world, the less sense it makes, and the less I'm able to immerse myself in that "what if" box. It doesn't make sense to me that people would divide themselves into factions based on prominent virtues and live by them to the letter--that's like Hogwarts Houses on steroids. It would never work, not even for a short period of time. I have to really shut my brain off in order to accept the world building of this particular book, and frankly I'd rather keep my brain on.

Recommendation:

Do I like this series? Yes. I do think you should read it, if you like dystopian YAs and if you go in knowing that the world building is flawed. And I think it's fair to say that this book was a solid addition to the series, though I wasn't thrilled with the pacing. Overall, it's a good book. 3.5 stars.

Get your copy here! Insurgent (Divergent)

On Castes: A Review of The Selection by Kiera Cass

I was eager to read The Selection for a number of reasons. The first was the cover, which really rocked my socks, or would if I wore socks. The second was the premise, which I thought was a hilariously terribly premise, but I thought it might be really amusing (and I will address why momentarily). And the third was the fact that I saw it getting wildly mixed reviews. Love it, hate it, set it on fire, and everything in between. Of course I wanted to butt in with my own thoughts.

The Premise: In a dystopian future, what was once the United States is now part of a large kingdom, with a fairly strict caste system. You are numbered One through Eight, One being royalty and Eight being homeless. The Selection is a chance for any girl in the country to marry the young prince, Maxon, thus instantly being elevated and gaining wealth for her family. Thirty five candidates are chosen. America Singer (yes, her name is stupid), doesn't want to be a chosen. She's a Five who just wants to marry her Six boyfriend and live out her life poor but rich in love. But America is chosen, and with her life changing so drastically, she decides to make the best of it--by befriending Prince Maxon and her fellow Selected.


Positive Comments:

America may have a stupid name, but she's a good character--for the most part. I felt like I could relate to her, even when I disagreed with her world view and her decisions. She's naive and optimistic in her view of love. She wants the best for her family, but she isn't blindly selfless. She genuinely seems to like herself, and maintains her sense of individuality by not allowing The Selection to totally change the way she looks.

Maxon was interesting to me in that he was obviously so sheltered, but yet had a lot of weight on his shoulders. I liked his interactions with America, especially early in the book, when it's clear that he doesn't know anything about girls, friendship, life outside the palace, or how to fall in love. They form a friendship--and Friends First is my very favorite romance trope.

The dystopian setting was, predictably, what made this story work for me. Unlike many dystopian books, the hypothetical future presented here is not so outlandishly unrealistic as to keep me totally removed from the story (*cough cough, Divergent*). Yet not so realistic that it's nightmare inducing. I liked learning about the caste system and the social and economic issues inherent in that sort of system.

Critical Comments:

"It's Hunger Games meets The Bachelor"! I can't remember where I read that, but boy is it willfully misleading. Yes, this is a dystopian book with a competition plot, but the similarities end there. If this were a book were 35 girls had to fight to the death, and the winner got the be princess--yeah, that would be spectacular. But it's a lot tamer than that. This is not, by any means, an action filled book. It's actually very slow in parts, and readers who like adventure and suspense are bound to be disappointed. 

Look, Tippy has a crown!

The competition itself holds the book back in many ways, which is where I get to my above comment: The premise is stupid. I hate The Bachelor. If you love it, more power to you. But I hate it. Love doesn't work like that. And having multiple people competing for the love of one person will always, always, keep me from getting fully invested in the relationship. This is the same reason that love triangles don't work for me, nine times out of ten. Well, this is a love triacontakaihexagon. With a love triangle on the side. Not good.

I was surprisingly okay with the plot, however, while America remained uninvested in the competition.The second that she decided she might like to win, my enjoyment of the book started to wane dramatically. I stopped trusting her feelings for Maxon and her previous boyfriend, and I sincerely started to doubt her intelligence. It's a shame, because the first 3/4 of the book were 5 star quality.

Recommendation

If you like futuristic dystopian novels, and you don't mind them on the slow side, this is a good pick. Bonus points if The Bachelor ranks as one of your most beloved shows. If, however, you are looking for action, adventure, and epicness in your dystopian, look elsewhere. 3.5 stars.

On Dauntless: A Review of Divergent by Veronica Roth

This was one of those books that just kept popping up everywhere. Everyone that I asked insisted that I would love it, and they were not wrong.

Beatrice Prior has grown up in a faction called Abnegation, a subculture that believes in selflessness above all things. On her sixteenth birthday, she must choose a permanent faction--remain in Abnegation, or transfer to one of the four other factions. An aptitude test, meant to tell her which faction would suite her best, instead reveals something else entirely. Beatrice is divergent--she doesn't fit neatly into a category. Not fully understanding what this means, but knowing that it could lead to becoming an outcast, Beatrice makes the decision to enter Dauntless, the courage faction. Joining the Dauntless tests her physical, emotional, and psychological fortitude.

Positive Comments

I'm a sucker for a good training montage.  The journey to becoming a Dauntless was fascinating to me. Beatrice changes her name to Tris, sheds drab clothing in favor of sexier items, gets tattooed, learns to fight and use weapons, and starts to look inside herself for a deeper kind of bravery. She meets friends. She starts to fall for an older guy, named Four. And holy hell, there's not love triangle! What I'm saying, in a nutshell, is that I loved Tris' character arc, her personality, everything.

The relationship building with Four is about as good as you can expect in a book where the romance is not the main point. He's a likeable, layered character in his own right. More importantly, I liked that he respected and believed in Tris. He gets protective, but at the same time he trusts her to hold her own. I loved that.

Critical Comments

Some of the logic behind the world building is...well, it's not logical. So...having these factions somehow promotes peace? How? And the factions themselves are almost silly in their polarized ways of life. I chuckled a bit at some of the Dauntless behavior. They don't go to trains stations to board trains, they just jump on and off. And they leap off of buildings and climb stuff and pierce their bodies for no good reason...Basically, all of the arbitrary senseless displays of courage that you could possibly think of. I love the result of the world building, but you have to turn your brain off to accept that this world could ever exist.

Recommendation

If you like dystopians, this is a must read. If you like YA fiction in general, it's a must read. With a tough heroine, a solid story, and a sweet romance, I can't recommend this enough. 4.5 stars.