Today, we're mixing things up with a guest blogger! Let's welcome Melanie Derblich, former Borders 647 employee, budding playwright and self-proclaimed "snark shark." She's here to share her unique perspective on the dystopian genre and Kiera Cass' "The Selection" trilogy. This post contains spoilers; you've been warned.
How
to write a review when the heat is affecting your brain and
everything around you is annoying.
This
is my second attempt at writing a review for Kiera Cass's young adult
trilogy, The
Selection.
It is perhaps unfair to write a review for a young adult book from
the mindset of an adult. Teenagers are, as we all know, hormonal
beasts that live every moment on the edge. Maybe it truly is the
heat that made you so uncomfortable that you suffer a temporary
stroke, thus making you an evil person and a complete burden on
others. Or maybe this was truly a poorly researched, unoriginal
piece that we read so you wouldn't have to. I will assume that the
former two ultimately affect the latter which will be reflected in
this review.
Readers,
you can thank Jenn for making me list some good points about this
series. I must digress a little with my first point and note that
with young adult books, it is important to keep in mind that
teenagers are emotional beings and when they feel, their pre-frontal
cortex is not fully developed thus, not completely rational. So
basically; not much different me now. Cass does an effective job at
encapsulating the idealism of the young person who sets out to change
the world. At some point or another in our adolescent lives, we all
think that we can make a difference by dropping coins into a little
orange Unicef box. Cass's heroine, aptly named America
for her fighting spirit, is able to change a post-apocalyptic nation
on a grander scale: fighting against 35 other females, BACHELOR
STYLE. As a 16 year old female, I know that I would have been hooked
into this torrid teenage love affair. As a 27 year old, I still
found myself flipping one page after another waiting with angst to
find out whether she chose her childhood sweetheart or her prince
charming.
That
being said, I have to wonder how much thought and research went into
writing this story. I will give the author credit as she drew
inspiration from pop culture. This story, as one reviewer noted was
a cross between the
Bachelor
and the
Hunger Games. I
would argue, less the latter. True this series falls into the
dystopian genre as does the
Hunger Games
but perhaps it is not enough to jump on the bandwagon while it's hot.
The same can be said about the recent surge in supernatural or other
worldly books after Harry
Potter
erupted.
Dystopia.
Karl Marx wrote The
Communist Manifesto
which, promotes an ideal society where everyone is equal. Is not the
struggle of our government to have an equal society of democracy and
checks and balances? Lowis Lowry wrote, in my opinion, the ultimate
dystopian book of how a society might achieve total balance within it
by eliminating "sameness." She showed how, from a distance
this might appear ideal but like a Paul Signac painting, up close, is
not as pretty. Dystopian fiction is not new, not even by Lowis
Lowry's standards. There was Orwell's 1984,
as well as a plethora of other books throughout history. Everyone
seems to want to hypothesize how the world might turn out if we
continue on the political path we are on. One of many
characteristics of a dystopian novel is mention of the third and
fourth war, after the United States has crumbled cataclysmically and
China has taken over. Cass's world embodies this persona and then
some. That
being said, here is where I tend to get snarky. As a teenager, I
would have appreciated Cass's attempt at creating an outwardly strong
female character caught betwixt two steamy teenage males. As an
adult, all I saw was an emotionally abundant, "why me?"
"life isn't fair," 16 year old who thinks crying and
throwing temper tantrums is a way to change the world. In this
world, a new country and monarchy has been formed under the hand of a
malicious billionaire called Illea after its founder, Gregory Illea.
Castes are created to emphasize the difference between the rich and
poor and it is almost illegal to try and break out of the one you are
born to. America (character), born a 5 (castes are labeled 1-8, 1
being the royal family, and 8 being the homeless) falls in love with
a 6. Their love must be kept a secret as it is looked down upon
since one does not simply marry down in this society.
When
a royal son comes of age, young girls throughout Illea are encouraged
to participate in "the Selection," a bachelor-type
competition to win the heart of the prince and boost the morale of
the country. Though America is very much in love with her hunk,
Aspen (again, character. Iknowright?!) she submits her application
to the government in order to get her wishful parents off her back.
Shocker! She gets chosen! From here, the story can be broken down
into two parts: A love story and a war story.
Throughout
the process of the selection, the monarchy is at odds with "the
rebels." In Illea, there are two groups of rebels; Northern
rebels and Southern Rebels. The Northern rebels are basically
mischievous and annoying to the royals but otherwise harmless.
Conversely, when the Southern rebels attack, there is always
bloodshed and it would appear it is there mission to start a
revolutions and overthrow the monarchy and the selection process. So
while this war is going on, a lavish love story is unfolding. How
very gone with the wind!
If
course it is not America's idea to fall in love with the virginal yet
somehow masculine and sexually driven prince Maxon, but apparently
his musk got to her and she develops feelings. Wait, we're not over
Aspen yet! He shows up, drafted as a guard to the castle. So our
strong and independent heroine is caught. I love him! Now I love
him! But he's my first love! But look at him shirtless! There is a
mention of soldiers getting injections to make them stronger and more
muscle-y but that's about as into detail as Cass goes. I was
expecting a 'roid rage or some mention of super soldier
kangaroos…wait…I just slipped into Tank
Girl.
Sorry! What was in those injections? Better yet, was there any
shrinkage? We all saw those health classroom posters.
A
brief history of the country of Illea. A little more or less than
100 years ago (in the world of the book), and after World War Four,
Gregory Illea, billionaire and people person, came to power. With a
few strategic political moves, Illea became a monarchy and the
country was divided into castes. (And here I thought India was
moving away from that archaic way of thinking. Maybe Greggers was
part Hindu?) A few years later, the selection was created to boost
the morale of our girls. (Where is that old war propaganda poster?
Uncle Sam Wants You!) Fast forward two generations and somehow all
of the United States history is erased and history books have been
banned. So no one knows anything about world history? Really? Less
than a hundred years later? And everyone just goes along with it for
this long? Have we learned nothing from the Magna Carta?
As
for character development, I can't see America as the savior of the
human race. Her story arch goes as follows: Whimper, giggle,
blubber, giggle, scream, giggle, scold, giggle, cry, giggle,
complain, giggle, yell, giggle. Basically, the girl is bi-polar. I
can't imagine a girl with such emotional conviction could convince a
prince, with thirty-five other hot girls just waiting to jump him, to
pick her. I would have gotten rid of her the first day when she
screamed at him. It's like the girl has her period every freaking
day! And how about that Prince Maxon? He's sheltered for 18 years,
not had one girlfriend and his first time out is basically a reverse
gang bang. How lucky for him!
So
to sum everything up: Girl likes boy. Girl can't have boy because
boy is poor. Girl is forced to audition for the selection, a
bachelor type thing in Royal proportions, girl gets selected. Girl
tries not to fall for prince but does and spends three books trying
to figure out who she loves more. cry, laugh, yell, wah wah
oppressive government, rebellion, people die, marry prince. SHOCKER!
 |
| Guest Blogger, Melanie Derblich |
Did you read The Selection trilogy? Share your thoughts in the comments and debate and/or share the snark with Melanie.
The thing I love about books is that they don't really have an expiration date. (I'm talking fiction here :) Sure slang may get outdated, references may become more obscure, but the story itself can usually transcend time. This means that even if you don't read a book until a year or five or fifteen or fifty after it was published you can still get really excited and find a new author and squeal and hug the book (or your Nook/Kindle/Kobo) as if you read it the day it came out. This happened to me recently.
