The Selection: Book Review

During quarantine, I’ve made it my new hobby to re-read all of my old books, as well as, spend an insane amount of money on new ones. I’m very much a “series” type of girl, I  naturally prefer shows over movies because I love the character development and the time spent making each character have a place in your heart and a visual in your mind. I’ve cataloged the hundreds of books I own, and yes I did say HUNDREDS! I found that the good majority of the books I own are part of a series, even if I had never realized before.

Needless to say, on one of my many Barnes and Noble trips during quarantine, “The Selection” series by Kiera Cass caught my eye and I was so engrossed that I finished the first three books in two days.

Here are a few things you need to know before reading: first, the series consists of two stories within the five books. The first three revolve around America and her love story, whereas, the last two revolve around her daughter Eadlyn. Second, prepare to be engrossed. Each book ends with those terrible cliff-hangers that keep you coming back, so I suggest buying the first three together and then the second two together. Of course, if you’re a speed reader like me, I would just buy them all at once to save yourself the trouble of a second trip. Third, there are also six books, which I haven’t read, YET! They pertain to the series but are just offspring books. So in total, it’s eleven books.

My first impression of the series was that the plot is very similar to “The Hunger Games” series by Suzanne Collins. SPOILER ALERT: The scene is set up that the nation is put into groups, numbered, with the royal family as Ones. And every time there is a male heir of marrying age, the selection occurs where girls all over the nation are put into a raffle to be picked as one of the girls the prince might marry. 35 girls are chosen to go to the castle and essentially woo the prince. Sounds a little familiar right? That’s what I thought too.

Overall the series stole my heart, unsurprisingly. It was written phenomenally and the whole time I read, I easily pictured the world that America was living in, although I don’t think I’d ever want to live like that. 

My thought question, instantly after finishing the fifth book, was whether or not it’d be made into a movie. Even though it’s very similar to The Hunger Games, I could only imagine what was in store for this series if it came to life in front of our eyes. And I’m here to tell you that according to Kiera Cass’s website and Variety’s Exclusive that Netflix will be working hard to make this series into a film adaptation!!! 

So there you have it! I beg of you, please read this series before you watch the films! While I have no doubt that Netflix will go to extremes to make this series into everything we want, no one in history has ever said “oh yeah, the film was way better than the book.” Even though it is being filmed, you have so much time before it’s produced and quarantine has your activity options limited, so reading it will be a fun adventure!

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