Well, folks, this is it.  The last chapter of The Selection.  It’s not the end of The Selection, oh no, not by a long shot.  It’s merely the point at which, after twenty-four other chapters of padding and bullshit, the author realized she’d reached her word-count, so she hastily scribbled in a ‘the end.’  It’s not a logical ending spot, there’s no resolution to anything, it just…stutters to a stop at random.

Oh, god, it’s Fifty Shades of Grey all over again!

So, Aspen sneaks into America’s house oh-god-thirty in the morning once again because he wants to talk about feelings and it’s not creepy at all to have some guy repeatedly come into your bedroom while you sleep.   You know, as long as he’s hot.

He tries to kiss her again, but she stops him.  Apparently not because it carries a death sentence, but because she’s ‘here for Maxon’ and so she can’t be seeing other guys.  I know, it sounds pretty close…but the word choice is all off.  It doesn’t reference the laws or the penalties, it makes it sound like she agrees that she should be devoted to Maxon even if he isn’t to her.

So, to recap – kissing someone when doing so might get your head chopped off: perfectly fine!  Kissing someone if you aren’t sure who you’re dating: wrongity wrong and you’re a bad girl for doing it.  God, this book’s priorities are fucked up.

America says she still loves Aspen, but he crushed her when he dumped her.

 “You took away my dreams, and the only reason I’m here is because you insisted I sign up.”

Yeah, that pretty much sums up her character.  She has no dreams outside of getting married to her ex-boyfriend, and she couldn’t even be arsed to get herself into the book’s sorry excuse for a plot.

“So you’re choosing him over me?” he asked miserably.

“No, I’m not choosing him or you. I’m choosing me.”

“And by ‘choosing me’ I don’t mean I’m going to develop a personality or goals or anything.  I mean that…um…gee…what do I mean?  Oh, several more books of obsessing about boys and having no character or drive of my own.  Yeah, that’s what I mean.  Because feminism is great and all, but only if your life continues to have meaning exclusively while in the company of men.”

No, seriously, the rest of this scene is them talking about The Great Aspen-Maxon debate, as if that’s all that matters, and the only choice America has in anything is the choice between one man and another man.

I mean, it’s not like she’s actually high ranking now and can do whatever the fuck she wants without a man or any-oh, wait, yes she is.  Maybe?  Okay, actually it’s a little hard to tell through all the shoddy worldbuilding.

And…yeah, that’s it.  Aspen leaves after saying that he’ll “fight” for America in some vague way.  So we don’t even get a resolution to the love triangle, which is the closest thing this book has had to a plot.  They just leave it at the same status-quo that’s been around this entire book and then call that an ending. 

Because fuck the reader, that’s why.