SERIESous Spoilers: A feature where we discuss what happened in our favourite (or maybe not so favourite) books. Did you like the plot changes? The romance? What surprised you? What angered you? And what do you think will happen next?
This month’s SERIESous Spoilers Pick:
The Heir by KIERA CASS | The Selection #4
I hummed and hawed over writing this one but I was having so much fun posting comments on other people’s reviews that I decided, why not?
–Eadlyn’s Attitude–
Eadlyn was a major improvement over America…hands-down/no doubt about it/why-am-I-even-pointing-out-the-obvious! BUT I did have some mixed feelings about her.
What I loved: her need to be independent. I am I total feminist when it comes to the idea that women and their partners should be on equal ground. A girl can rule a kingdom just as well as a boy and if he can rule alone, why can’t a girl? So I was totally team Eadlyn when it came to doing it on her own.
What I DIDN’T love: how she tried to assert her proof that she could do it on her own. She simply came across as a brat to me who lacked the maturity to rule on her own. It was frustrating to watch her dig her own grave so to speak because I WANTED her to succeed! She was cruel when she didn’t need to be and plain rude in some cases and that irked me. Especially when someone called her out on it! It was hypocritical to me and she played the “princess” card a little too much for my liking. (Being a princess doesn’t excuse you from being a jerk to people).
Her attitude improved as the book progressed but it was a rough start for me!
–the caste system–
We all know that the caste system was eliminated/phased out in the time between The One and The Heir. Obviously, there are still some kinks to work out–change can’t happen over night, especially when people are conditioned to a certain ideology for so long. And that’s fine and I expected that.
Apparently I was the only one.
Eadlyn seemed to struggle with this a lot at the start of the novel. How she handled it just shows her age and her inexperience when it comes to politics. It just seemed ironic to me that for a group of people who wanted the Castes to go away, they had no problem bringing up their past castes when introducing themselves or using their previous caste to their advantage. Like I said, she played the Princess card too much for my liking and she was awfully focused on what people’s past Caste rankings were to prove to me that she supported the idea of no castes. Just irked me a little.
(I hope that makes sense–I’m writing this months after reading the book and I don’t remember all the finer details to give specific evidence).
–who is she going to pick?–
Now for the fun part! Who is she going to pick?! This book reminded me a lot more of The Bachelorette than it did a dystopian novel. Which is great if you want a true YA romance and not so great if you wanted more dystopian strife.
My pick is Kile. He came on strong at the start as the obvious choice for me though he kind of fell behind the scenes later on. I’m hoping that changes in the second book. I just love the whole idea that they couldn’t see what was in front of them the whole time.
I really love Erik but I don’t want him to win. It just seems like a cop-out to me though I’m not sure why. It’s weird because I think they would be a good match but at the same time, it would just be more satisfying to me as a reader to see her end up with someone from within the actual Selection; especially when she didn’t want to have it in the first place.
As for Henri, keep him in the platonic friend zone. There isn’t passion there and I think they work much better as friends. Plus, I want more YA books to have those platonic friendships; not all friends are in love with each other in the real world!
Yeah… This one is my least favorite from the series. I’m rooting for Kile and Erik too!
The Selection is a guilty pleasure read for me. I really, really couldn’t stand America so I think overall, I liked this one more when it comes to the heroine.
I think I agree with absolutely everything you wrote in this post. Btw, I absolutely LOVE this feature! 😀
I loved Eadlyn because she was so much more independant! She bothered me though, because, like you just said, she was acting like a “princess” a little too much for my taste. You’re right about the caste system, it probably takes time to change what people thought about this, but I really hope that it will in the next book.
I’m rooting for Kile, all the way! Because, like you said, I’d love her to end up with someone from The Selection anyways. I have to admit, though, Erik is great, too 🙂
Thank you 😀
I always knew that the caste system was going to be a large focus of the book…well, not as much as I would expect/want in a dystopian novel. I’m hoping the next book will work more with that plot line because it would do wonders for Eadlyn’s character growth. It just baffled me that they were baffled when they weren’t really setting good examples of how to remove the caste ranking from a person’s identity.