Don't let this frilly cover fool you. This novel is full of rebels, fighters, and believers in hope. There's love, secrets revealed, and tragic loss. There's a strong main female heroine and a love-triangle-centric plot that pushes the bounds of the stereotypes that description brings to mind. And at the end of it all, there's a force to be reckoned with, one that will not be broken by something as small as a bullet. The One is by far the best of The Selection series, full of courage, heart and mystery as America's journey comes to an unforgettable close.Kiera Cass, #1 New York Times bestselling author, is the author of the Selection series which has gained a wide fanbase and is soon to be adapted for the screen. Cass graduated from Radford University with a B.S. in History. After growing up in South Carolina, she now lives in Virginia with her husband and two kids. In addition to the Selection series, Cass has written a standalone fantasy novel, The Siren, and her highly awaited seventh novel, The Betrothed, is out on May 5th. If you're interested in more of my reviews of Kiera Cass's work, you can find them all here.
America Singer never thought she'd make it this far in The Selection, but at the beginning of The One, she starts to see how close she is to the crown, and to Prince Maxon's heart. The state of Illéa and the threats to their country have become clear, as alliances form around America and Maxon, both of whom hope to make Illéa better for all the castes. But as event after event tries to stop America from gaining the crown, she's only more determined to win over Maxon for good. The last thing left for her to do is to get rid of Aspen, a palace guard she'd been in love with for two years, and the other girls. These challenges prove a little bit harder than we may think.
So far in this series, we've seen America grow from an almost Elizabeth Bennett type character to a fighter. Now, in The One, she's had her last chance to make her last impression on us and she's succeeded gracefully. She continues to remain individualistic and to fight for what she believes in, which are exactly the character traits that make America a role model to female readers. In this novel, she's also faced with difficult choices that intertwine her country and her love for Maxon. It's interesting how she addresses each of these issues head-on, understanding their implications as to how they'd affect her relationship with Maxon, her relationship with her family, and her relationship to her king and country. America never does anything blindly, at least with the information that she's given. In this novel, America truly does evolve into her own force. She's not just an Elizabeth Bennett spinoff, or even just a strong female heroine stereotype. She evolves from those things, sure, but because of her choices and actions becomes her own type of character. She becomes the girl most unlikely to be royalty, and makes it there all the same. I would have liked to see her interact more with the rebels, though, especially with that reveal at the end, or at least for her to mention her family ties to Maxon. I wish we could see what she'd do, now that she has the chance to change her country, and Maxon's agreement that things do need to change. Or, possibly, we just need to end on the knowledge that America has that power and ability, and that she will use it. Maybe that's the most important thing we're supposed to end with: hope.
Earlier when reading this series, I despaired over the minimalistic type of world-building I'd observed. I'd just finished reading a bunch of recently-published fantasy novels, and wanted The Selection series to be on par with them all, because I love this series so much. Over these reviews, I've been analyzing why I think these minimalistic choices have been made. But, finally, in The One, we learn exactly what the rebels of Illéa have been searching for. We understand their motivations, and the actions of the people. There was even a plot twist at the end about the rebels that was shocking and a strange sort of catalyst for Maxon to make his choice. These decisions show readers that this country still has so many places where it can improve socially, economically, and politically, much like our own world. I think it also reminds us that the focus of this series wasn't truly about the dystopia at all. In fact, I think the dystopia might have been created so it was a world in which The Selection process could have existed. Rather can complicating the romance-centric storyline with fantasy-level type world-building, the dystopia presented a genre that required less of that world-building so that The Selection would have felt realistic, and yet without the need for complicated world-building and fixing 24/7.
I think readers have been waiting the whole book for the girls of The Selection to finally get along. I know I have! Yes, we had the beautiful development of the best-friendship of Marlee and America in The Elite, but finally we see something like sisterhood blossom between the remaining girls: Celeste, Elise, Kriss, and America. Sadly, there's only three lovely scenes where these girls spill all and become confidantes. These two scenes, though, are easily some of the best in the book. It makes me wonder why friendships couldn't have come sooner, but watching all these girls come together and explain their thoughts behind Maxon and the process make that clear. Sometimes, I wish we had more of these friendship scenes -- they're so light-hearted and yet deeply emotional. But, at the end of the day, I think we (and the girls of the Selection!) can all agree that it's always been about Maxon. The friendships were an added bonus that we were lucky enough to get access to.
Speaking of Maxon, I wanted to commemorate Kiera Cass for her true manipulation of the love-triangle stereotype. The relationships between Maxon, Aspen, and America are unlike any other love-triangle dynamics I've ever read. This maybe has to come with the fact that Maxon, throughout the whole series, really have no idea that he's competing against Aspen. In turn, Aspen makes it clear that he's only fighting for America, and not against Maxon. The lack of the cut-throat nature between these two boys over America is refreshing. It reminds us as readers that this is truly about America's choice. It's inspiring to see America grapple with the demands of her own heart, rather than read pages upon pages of boys fighting each other for a girl's love. It's a twist on that stereotype, and it is welcome! This is part of the reason America's character is inspiring and timeless, because she has all the power in the novel. She always has.
I will make one last comment about the prose of The Selection series -- yes, it is simple, and yes that works in its favor. In The Selection, this prose allowed readers to fall in love with the characters and their struggles, which convinced us to read more. In The Elite, this prose had the added benefit of readability, which meant that this series could continue reaching a wide fanbase. Now, in The One, this prose has helped me see that there's a sense of timelessness to the story. The story itself never gets old, because the prose doesn't age poorly or trip me up or hold me back from maximum enjoyment. I couldn't see this timelessness before, and I would never have understood it without this analyzation. I've read The Selection series plenty of times, and never once thought about how the timelessness of the story could be connected to the average prose. I assumed this kind of prose was a byproduct to the relative newness of the young adult dystopian genre, and a way to make this genre mainstream. But now, I see it has the additional benefit of maintaining timelessness so that we as readers, no matter what age, can go back and be surprised by the story's twists and turns, and to always fall in love with Maxon and America again and again and again.
Thankfully, the story between these two doesn't quite end, but continues with their daughter in The Heir. Princess Eadlyn is now faced with the chance of love and destiny, but will she rise to the challenge? Stay tuned for more in my review for The Heir.
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