TL;DR love V and some vague political problems
(finished 5/30/15)
So when I wrote my review for The Selection, I said that I would give The Elite a chance. I also predicted it would be 300 pages of love V melodrama.
And I wasn't wrong.
Honestly, I can't say that anything really happened in The Elite other than America being pretty stupid. And a few rebel attacks. That's it. There was nothing really differentiating it from The Selection other than there being fewer girls.
Surprisingly, though, I had no sarcastic sticky notes. I guess that can be taken as a good sign. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood. The entire month of May felt like an emotional rollercoaster.
I can say that The Elite was interesting enough that there was no point that I wanted to abandon it to read at some other time. It sat in my backpack the last week and a half of school, when I didn't really have time in class to read it, but I sat down to finish it on the last Saturday of the month. (I'm kind of running out of time to finish my library books. And I've been really bored now that school is out for me.)
I really don't know if The Elite counts as a "middle book syndrome" example. Somehow it actually felt like an improvement on The Selection, but that may just be the lack of snark on my part. I mean, there's little to no plot advancement, so I definitely think that should be kept in mind, but it wasn't like I hated the book at any point. It's just okay.
I am planning to read The One, though at this point I've figured out that I just want to read The Heir. I honestly have no interest in America and Maxon, or even America and Aspen -- I just want to see what happens with America's daughter. I'm kind of hoping it'll be a better part of the series, though I know better than to bet on it.
The narration wasn't any better this time around, but since I was expecting it, it wasn't necessarily bad. The only thing I wish was improved was characterization and character development. The story could be so much stronger if America proved that she learned something during this whole ordeal, or if her and Maxon's actions were consistent to what an actual person would do and not just things that would advance the story how Cass wanted it to go. (That's also something I'm learning about in my writing, so I can't truly fault the writing on that. It's really just something that has to be learned out of experience.)
I really wasn't happy with the ending, but I'm not really sure how to explain it. It's like Cass set it up to become one thing and then the characters completely reversed the expected outcome for reasoning that wouldn't fly in real life.
Also, you know how this story could really be improved? A poly relationship. Like, do you know how much it would improve if we didn't have to watch America be all wishy-washy with which boy she wants to pick? I would love to see a book where the character in the love V is like, "Why can't I just love them both?" instead of feeling so much pressure on having to pick one of them as a end-all decision. America obviously cares strongly for both Maxon and Aspen -- even if it wasn't a poly relationship, there is honestly no reason that she can't keep her friendships / interpersonal relationships with both guys. Of course, in Illea, that might be easier said than done, but at least I came up with a solution. Unlike America's presentation at the end of the book.
Actually, I'm gonna talk about that a little bit. Skip over this paragraph if you don't want spoilers. I honestly cannot understand how America would be able to come up with such a daring presentation like that and then not include talking about how to pull it off or how to minimize the repercussions of what she was suggesting. I thought she would've been smarter than to just say, "Hey, let's completely destroy our current order of life" and then just end her presentation after listing how bad it was. You can't do that.
TL;DR It's basically just the same thing as The Selection. Take that as you will.
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