Guys, we are on the second to last chapter.  There is no plot.  We aren’t leading up to anything, there has been no development of any sort of story, and to tell the truth, I can’t even figure out what we’ve spend the past 23 chapters on.  There’s a chick, she got dumped, she went to the palace, and while at the palace she had lots of feels.  Um, okay, that’s a nice start to a story, but it’s not 23 chapters worth of story.  There’s been no rising action, no build up, no goal to this story.  All the characters just float through the narrative with no point or purpose.  No one, absolutely no one, is actually working toward anything, which is frankly impressive considering we have both a competition and a war going on.  But without any goal or purpose involved, it’s flatly impossible to have a climax.  We cannot end this story, because we never had any story to tell.

There is no story if it doesn’t go anywhere.  In that case, it’s just a tedious, drawn out character study.  And there’s a reason that pure character studies work best as novellas or short stories. 

Well, let’s see what bullshit this book gives us while considering it a climax.

Three girls leave after the attack last chapter.

We dropped to nineteen, and it suddenly felt like this was all moving quickly.

No, book, no.  Just telling us that things are suddenly going faster does mean that things are actually going faster.  Also, three girls at once isn’t surprising.  We had eight leave in the first cut, then three in the month that we summarized, two more than left in singular incidents, and now three here.  Things seem to be going at a pretty plodding, consistent pace.  Plus, more than half the girls are still there.

America waxes on about how, after the attack, all the girls are acting chummy and it’s all nice and shit.  She says that she loves all these girls and will for sure keep up with them after the Selection ends.  I’d like to call bullshit, because this little moment of friendliness is 1) summarized and 2) brought on by a specific circumstance.  It’ll fade.  It’s like the last day of high school, where everyone gets all nervous and nostalgic and promises to be friends forever and ever, only to completely fail on that promise a month into college. 

On top of that, America has never and still doesn’t show any interest in the other girls.  She characterizes the friendliness right now as all the other girls showing her attention.  It’s all about what’s coming towards her; she has no feelings going outward.  She doesn’t care about these girls, she doesn’t make any effort to find out about their lives or anything.  She just enjoys getting affection for no effort.

The atmosphere was that of my family dinners a few years ago, before Kota turned into a jerk and we lost Kenna to a husband

Kenna’s husband didn’t steal her.  She grew up and got married.  Seriously, what the fuck is up with this book?  There’s a ton of little, subtle talk about how marriage is such a horrible thing in which the woman becomes lesser than the man, but then it turns around and makes America practically trip over herself to marry Aspen.  Marriage does have a pretty fucked up history, but it’s not that way anymore, not legally at least.  At its core, taken without cultural influences, it’s just two people saying “I’m so dedicated to you that I want to make our promise to stick together all official and such.”  There’s no subjugation involved on either side.  It’s a pact made between two people that can mean fucking anything, and there’s nothing legally requiring one party to act or behave in a certain way.  If that’s changed in the future, then it’s because the author made it different.  Or, more likely, because she just didn’t think things out and has some sort of weird issues with marriage. 

Maxon is not as happy as all the girls.

He didn’t touch his food but instead looked up and down the rows of girls with a clear look of concentration on his face. Every once in a while, he paused midthought and seemed to debate with himself over something, and then moved on.

So, he thought…then he stopped thinking to think…then the thought some more?  Um, sure, whatever.

America does the ear-tugging thing.

Maxon stands up and announces that he’s going to only keep six girls around, because he doesn’t want to keep a large gaggle of girls in a place that gets attacked a bunch.  This is the point where you say things are moving fast, not back when only three girls left.  Also, yes, fucking moron, it’s bad to keep guests in a place that gets attacked.  Why not take that logic all the way out and fucking move to a safer location.

And also don’t have a Selection in the middle of a war.

He keeps Marlee, Celeste, America, Kriss and two other girls who haven’t been important so far.  Apparently these girls will become ‘Elite,’ but we still don’t know what the fuck that means.

Aspen, also in the room, looks confused.

I’d told him I didn’t love Maxon, so he would have assumed I meant next to nothing to Maxon as well.

Why would he assume that?  And why is ‘not love’ being equated to ‘next to nothing’?  Fucking hell, book, we’ve got enough issues floating around with people assuming that pure romantic heterosexual love is the only connection worth giving a fig over.  I mean, fuck, if Maxon actually was sure of loving any of these girls, and going by the book’s assumption that he actually should base his marriage on that, then he would have picked already.

America also assumes he is wondering why she’s tense about staying or leaving.  Um, hello, Aspen’s in the palace.  Getting cut from the Selection means getting removed from both her not-boyfriends.  And Aspen’s enough of an egocentric than I wouldn’t be surprised if he assumed she was tense on his account.

The rest of the morning was odd. I’d never really had friends that I would miss.

No, really?  I couldn’t tell by your self-centered attitude and general dickish behavior.  How shocked I am that you have no friends in this group.  Also, I’m so totally astounded by this utter reversal from the chapter’s earlier “we’re all going to be friends forever” passage.  This is totally the first time this book has been contradictory within a mere few pages. 

I’m also completely shocked by how America doesn’t even bat an eye at the disparity between her earlier thoughts and this thought here.  Doesn’t think for one second how odd or sad it is that everyone could be buddy-buddy in the morning and then bitter in the afternoon.

Oi, if I roll my eyes any harder they’re going to fall out.

Maxon comes over, and the maids are giggly again before they leave.  Maxon apologizes for yelling at her.  He says he was on a short fuse because everyone and their dog was trying to tell him what to do about the Selection, and he just couldn’t handle one more person trying to tell him what to think.  Then he rationalizes all of his other five picks.

“Well, you’ve seen my choices. Marlee is a favorite with the people, and that cannot be overlooked. Celeste is a very powerful young woman, and she comes from an excellent family to align ourselves with. Natalie and Kriss are charming girls, both very agreeable and favorites of some in my family. Elise happens to have relations in New Asia.

YES, FINALLY SOME FUCKING SENSE.  I don’t necessarily agree with all of his arguments, but THANK FUCKING GOD someone is actually approaching this nonsense from the right direction.

Going by this, he should pick Elsie.  He says that her connections might be an inroad into negotiating an end to the war, and…um, yes, that’s fucking important, why is this getting dragged out?

Then he says he kept America in because he wants to marry her, despite the fact that she brings all of nothing to the table.  Nadda.  Zero.  Zilch.  He could pick the girl that will save lives, or the girl that makes his hormones go WHEEEEE and he’s holding out for the hormones.  This country is fucked.  In fact, the only reason he hasn’t outright picked America is because she’s still not sure about him, and he wants to have other options in case she decides to drop out.

America has feels for a few moments, then they talk about the rebels.

“I’m getting more and more worried, America. North or South, they’re getting exceptionally determined. It seems they won’t stop until they get what they want, and we haven’t the faintest clue what it is.”

Uh, ask them.  No, really.  You know what fucking city they holed up in.  Send in a spy, or maybe at the next attack capture one instead of just killing or running them off.  In fact, why don’t you have any prisoners yet? 

It’s not this hard to find out what rebels want.  Ten times out of ten, they’ll tell you what they want by shouting so from the rooftops.

Maxon once again tells her that she can leave if she’s scared, or leave if she thinks she can’t eventually love him, because it would be kinder to tell him that news now.  She reiterates that they are more than friends, but she just can’t be sure, so they make out instead.

AND THERE’S STILL NO FUCKING CLIMAX TO THIS BOOK.  Seriously, we had this exact same situation somewhere near the middle of the book: rebel attack, and friends-but-not-now-kiss.  NOTHING HAS CHANGED SINCE THE MIDDLE OF THE BOOK.  America’s feelings haven’t changed, the situation with the rebels hasn’t changed, no one knows more about this mysterious something that they are supposedly searching for.  Nothing has changed AT ALL in the last fucking hundred pages or more. 

THIS IS AN ENTIRE BOOK OF FLUFF, FILLER, AND STUPIDITY AND NO STORY AND I HATE IT AND WHY DID YOU PEOPLE MAKE ME READ IT!?!?!?!