Review: Kiera Cass novel The Selection

Elaina Joyner, Reporter

If you love watching the Bachelor, you will thoroughly enjoy the book The Selection.

The Selection is a teen drama written by Kiera Cass. It keeps you on your toes and always wondering what is going to happen next.

Deadline described the book as “…The Hunger Games without the bloodshed, it follows 35 underprivileged girls who are chosen to compete to live in a life of luxury.”

The Selection takes place in a dystopian society where everyone is divided into different social classes.

Above is the front cover of The Selection. The Selection is a teen drama written by Kiera Cass and was first published in 2012. (Harper Teen)

These social classes are defined by castes and are separated by wealth and jobs. Each caste has a different number to signify which one you are in. For example, the sixes in the castes are the servants, the fives are the people who are musically talented, and the ones are the members of the royal family.

The story begins when Prince Maxon Schreave comes of age. Schreave must pick his future wife to be, so girls from different castes are selected to come to the castle, meet the future king, and compete for the crown. The Selection gives these 35 girls the chance to get out of the caste they were born into and become something they couldn’t have been before. The girls now have the chance of stealing the Prince’s heart and living a life full of crowns and jewels.

The main character America, a five, despises the whole idea of being selected and leaving her secret lover, Aspen, a six. She is forced to enter the contest to compete for a the Prince, a man she doesn’t want, and live in a castle that is being threatened and attacked by rebel.

However, when America finally meets the prince, she her goals of quickly getting out of the castle begin to change. Suddenly, she feels that the future she imagined with Aspen might not be what she wants now, and that roller coaster of emotions leaves her, and you, wondering what will happen next.

The Selection was first published in 2012 by Harper Teen. It’s is the first book in the are eight series that contains five novels followed by three novellas. The book has sold 3.5 million copies worldwide, and two other volumes have been published. The other books in the series include The Selection, The Elite, The One, The Heir, and The Crown.

“HarperTeen just made a two-book deal to continue the series, which is published in 32 languages,” said Deadline.

Kiera Cass, the author of the Selection series, was ranked number one on The New York Times bestseller list with The Selection.

The Selection has almost been made into a movie and a TV show many times. CW Television Network was given the rights to the story, and two episodes were filmed. However, neither of the episodes were ever chosen to be made into a full series. In April 2015, Warner Bros. was given movie rights for the Selection, but no movies have surfaced.

Cass shared on her blog post from Deadline that, “Warner Bros has won film rights to Kiera Cass’ global bestseller The Selection, the first of a five-novel series, and has set Blacklist scribe Katie Lovejoy to adapt it.”

The book is a quick read and the type of book that, once you start reading, you will not be able to put down. You are constantly wondering what will happen next and who will win the selection process. America’s love triangle has you holding onto your seat to find out who she will choose. Cass paints the characters in a way that makes it hard for the reader  to do anything but fall in love with them. The book is so descriptive that it’s easy to form a movie in your head.