America’s dress is so tight that she can’t even eat a full dinner, but when she goes back to her room she leaves it on for the meeting with Maxon.  Because their relationship is too casual for verbal invitations, but not for formal, uncomfortably skin-tight dresses?  Seriously, why can’t she take the dress off and then just wear something else?

So she waits for Maxon while doing nothing.

I didn’t know how long he’d be, and I didn’t want to start a book and have to stop, or sit down at the piano only to hop right back up.

Right, heaven forbid you have to suffer the great hardship of putting down a book, it’s much more reasonable for you to just stare at the ceiling while waiting dutifully for a boy to show up.

Why is this even a thing?  Does the author really think it’s that annoying to read for just a few minutes?  And then write that opinion into a book?

Oh, I see.  She wanted to pad out the word count by having America muse about Maxon and Aspen for a while.  Why couldn’t she think while at a piano?  Or just go straight into daydreaming, instead of making bullshit excuses that weren’t needed about why she’s daydreaming?

So Maxon shows up and is very disgruntled at seeing that her maids aren’t there.  He says if she’s going to send her maids away, he’s going to post a guard outside her door to keep her safe.  And if the maids had stayed…then she’d be safe?  Are these ninja maids?

They go walking around through the halls and run across another group of girls.  Wait, so, they need a secret code to meet together, but after that, it’s okay if everyone knows they’re meeting together?  So why the secret code instead of just a regular note?

Maxon and America talk about the girls who wanted to leave during the attack.  Maxon says he’s glad they all decided to stay.  Then America points out exactly what I’m thinking: dude, wouldn’t it be better if they left?  Except she thinks it’s because it would be easier to have a few decisions made for her, and I think it’s because you really don’t want a queen that’s that wishy-washy.  Again, wanting to go home while under attack is not a bad thing.  But…but…queen.  Important job.  Got to be made of sterner stuff.  There’s lots of perfectly nice, decent people who still have no business being in charge of shit.  And that’s fine right up until they’re put in charge of shit.  Maxon declines to explain why he’s glad those girls are still around.

So then America and Maxon go outside.  Because, you know, it’s not like they were attacked just a few days ago or nothing.

Maxon then goes on a emo-fest to rival America’s by asking her consider how terribly embarrassing it is for him to have everyone watch him try and interact with these girls.  Which, while I’m sure it is, doesn’t negate all the points America brought up first: the girls are away from home, separated from their families and any support, and equally under scrutiny.  And then he goes on to whine about how it’s so hard being a prince because he has a father to run around behind him and correct all his mistakes.  No, really, he says that his father makes him do the running-country work, but then when he messes up, his father steps in to keep it from having any actual consequences.  It’s just some fucking on-the-job training, but he’s whining away like it’s just so hard to have to actually learn shit instead of automagically know it.

Aaaand then they talk about how worried he is over not finding his ‘soul mate’ in this Selection.  Again, because I will never let this go: IT’S NOT ABOUT LOVE YOU STUPID IDIOTS.  If they really wanted you to find your ‘soul mate,’ they wouldn’t have set things up like this.  It’s about finding a good QUEEN, which involves considerably more than just getting the wibbles.

“If your life is as upside down as you say it is, then she has to be here somewhere. In my experience, true love is usually the most inconvenient kind.”

That’s the stupidest line yet.  Nothing in this book has been caused by the Selection girls.  Not the Selection itself, not the rebels, not the war.  Not one single thing in Maxon’s life has been affected by the actual girls.  It’s been affected by the people who brought the girls to the palace.  His life is upsidedown because of a bunch of stodgy farts on a selection committee.  Going by America’s logic, Maxon is gay for old guys.

America is on edge, looking for cameras and other people, until Maxon assures her that they are alone.

“Not really. I prefer being below the radar. That’s what I’m used to, you know?”

Early in this book you were bitching about how the people who hired you to sing didn’t pay enough attention to you at parties.  So, no, I don’t know.

My mom still talks to some of the women she was with when she went through the Selection. They’re all viewed as important women. Still.”

Oh really?  What do they do?  Are the government officials?  Advisors?  Businesswomen?  Public speakers?  What do they do?  Fuck it, the queen herself has barely done anything in this book, so I’m really curious about what you consider to be an important woman.

I was freshly reminded of how much this stupid competition was costing me, how my idea of normal was never coming back.

Care to remind us what it’s costing you?  Because, as I recall, you broke up with your boyfriend before being Selected, and for unrelated reasons, and your idea of ‘normal’ is being near-destitute.  What exactly are you missing out on by being here?

The prince asks her why she’s willing to stay in the Selection when she clearly doesn’t want to be there, because apparently he forgot that part of the story where she specifically told him that her family needs the money.  America also forgot that part, because she says it’s ’just another failed love story.‘  Eh?  So…you’re staying at the palace because Aspen broke up with you?

Has this whole damn book just completely forgotten when and why they broke up?

Anyway, America tells the story of how she met Aspen.  Seems her family and his are kind of buddy-buddy, and they hire Aspen’s mom whenever they can just to give her that work and help her out.  Which…okay, cool, that makes a bit more sense.  Also, her brother Kota once sold a sculpture for a huge lot of money, then kept all the money to himself, and now he’s famous for it and gets lots of work and charges lots of money for his art.

So…I guess there aren’t any caps on what people can be paid?  It’s just that people are forced into a bullshit artist caste and no one wants to buy sucky art.  You know, there’s only a few ways to read this story, and most of them end up with: the Singer family sucks pretty hard at art.  Except Kota.

Oh, and it seems you can buy your way into a higher caste.  Kota doesn’t share any of his new money with the family because he wants to save up and buy the title of ‘Two.’  First: that’s not a title.  Learn your fucking words, book.  Second…no, actually, I approve of this idea.  So long as it’s unattainable by most people.  The chance to buy into a different caste actually works pretty well at oppressing people, because it gives them a false hope of upward mobility.  They’ll spend all their time working hard for a goal they’ll never reach, instead of being hopeless and spending their time plotting against you instead.  It’s the fact that it’s apparently so easy for Kota that gets to me.  I mean, he can charge whatever he wants for his art and there’s nothing to stop him from raking in the dough.  That’s not very oppressive.  It also makes me wonder if it’s the same for Sixes, and if I’m right that this whole society is fucked because they don’t pay servants a decent wage.  Especially since accountants are also considered ‘servants.’  That’s just begging to be embezzled.

Anyway, before America realized what an ass Kota is, she went along to help him set up his apartment and Aspen was there helping, too.   That’s how they met, and then they did some ‘eyes met from across the room’ instant love thing.

Blah, blah, blah, more of the Aspen story, all the way up to the breakup.  It’s…it’s a really fucking detailed story.  The sort you’d expect to read in a diary, not the sort you’d expect to hear in a conversation.  Man, why is it that so many authors don’t grasp the concept of telling a story out loud, and how people generally do that?  They seem to always want to have them speak the same way they’d write. 

Also, none of this serves to explain why she’s insisting on staying at the palace.  It’s just a really sappy, trite, teenager-ish love story that’s entirely beside the point.  I mean, she’s not saying ‘oh, I’m staying here to spite him’ or whatever.  They dated.  They broke up.  Now she’s here and doesn’t want to leave, except that she does.  Whatever, I only barely care.

Maxon, I guess, sees whatever connection I’m missing and vows to keep her in the contest until the final three.  Because…yeah, that’ll show Aspen?