Many people have mentioned in asks and comments about the blatant Hunger Games rip-offs.  Yes, I see them, too.  They’re obvious because they don’t fit at all with the rest of the book, so they basically have a neon sign over them going “I don’t belong here.”  Frankly, I am choosing not to point them out every time.  I think that borrowing elements from another book (or from many other books, since that’s what happens with popular elements) is fine, so long as something intelligent is done with them.  And as long as it doesn’t slide over into outright plagiarism.  So I’m saving all my hate for the fact that these elements don’t fit, not for the fact that they came from something more popular.

Moving on.  America sets up a nice dinner/evening in the treehouse for Aspen.  She’s got extra money to do so now that she gets to keep half her paycheck.  Which just goes to confirm my suspicion that these people aren’t tight on money, they’re just utter shit at managing it.  Either that or America is a selfish ass for spending her money on frivolities as soon as she gets the chance, rather than food and rent for her two younger siblings.

People have been throwing parties for their daughters, convinced said daughters are going to win, and America has been singing all week.

Remember a few chapters ago when America was all crying about how she only ever finds work at holidays?  I don’t mind the pre-emptive parties, mostly because America doesn’t say who’s throwing them and I’m assuming it’s the Two’s she’s mentioned working for before.  Rich people throw parties at the drop of the hat, and likely they have money to spend on an over-confidence party.  But, hey!  Rich people throw parties at the drop of a hat!  So why isn’t America working more often?

I’d made too much dinner on purpose to save him some, and I’d been baking pastries for days. May and I both had a terrible addiction to sweets anyway, and she was jubilant that this was how I was choosing to spend my money.

I don’t think this author knows what money is.  I think this author just thinks poor people are those who don’t shop enough, and if they went out shopping more they wouldn’t be so poor.  That may be a little harsh, but it’s pretty much how she’s treating money in this book, because there’s no sense given to the idea that money is finite, and if you spend it on one thing, you have less to spend on another thing. 

She also seems to have dropped the idea that America’s money is coming from the family’s finite pool.  As if America keeping half her paycheck means that’s extra money into the household, not money being withheld from the household and given to just one member.

But Aspen is not happy.

“America, I’m supposed to be providing for you. It’s humiliating for me to come here and have you do all this for me.”

Okay, feminism, blah blah, women can provide, Aspen’s an ass, others have said this before me.  Let’s take a different tract for a moment.  Aspen lives in a caste where he routinely goes hungry, and that’s even with his mother and two sisters working.  Every member of the household has to contribute just to keep them all afloat.  This system has been in place for generations, so it’s not exactly a new concept for him. 

Where is Aspen getting this idea that he has to be the provider?  It shouldn’t even be a thing.  He should already expect that America is going to work and work hard just to keep both of them from starving.  Sure, maybe he looks at the higher castes and sees housewives and thinks that would be nice.  It’s not a bad thing to want a life of leisure and comfort for your loved ones.  But he shouldn’t expect it and he shouldn’t be embarrassed by it.  It’s like writing to Santa that you want a pony for Christmas and then burning shit down when you don’t get one.  It’s okay to want it, but he should be conditioned not to expect it, because it’s just a pipe dream.

This isn’t even a pure classism holdover, because women have been working happily for decades.  Now we’re being bombarded with middle-class ideals from the 50s.  This shit is doubly out of place.

They fight more about how Aspen wants to be a provider, and America doesn’t ever tell him that’s stupid, she just tells him that she loves him a lot and doesn’t mind doing it.  Because, apparently, we’re not supposed to see Aspen as being totally disconnected from reality.  America even apologizes for humiliating him.

Because fuck feminism, that’s why.

America says that if he proposes, she’ll say yes.  At the age of sixteen.  Aren’t you so glad you married your sixteen-year-old boyfriend?

Aspen says no, he’s not going to ask her.  Not because they are teenagers, but rather because he doesn’t want her to be as pathetic as him.  On the one hand…yeah, okay, I can see that.  On the other hand, jeeze, let her make up her own mind.

At least he dumps her honestly and tells her why he’s doing it, not some bullshit about how he doesn’t love her anymore.  I mean, still hurts, but less confusing than being lied to.

So America mopes for the rest of the week, but we skip over it to the next Friday news report, where Magda has made popcorn.  Because I will never stop harping on this: middle class brat.

“Queen Amberly is the best queen ever. She’s so beautiful and smart. Every time I see her on TV, I want to be just like her,” May said with a sigh.

Yeah?  What has she done that’s so smart?  Negotiate relations with all these countries that want to attack you?  Set up schools for lower castes?  Get involved in some sort of legislation?  Run a philanthropic group?

Come on.  You can’t just tell me she’s smart and leave it there.  She doesn’t even read the news; she just sits there.  At least the king gets to read off a teleprompter.  Sad when your ‘smart’ queen doesn’t even get that much action.

The king appeared and gave a brief update on the war. The other announcements were also short. It seemed like everyone there was in a good mood. I guessed this must be exciting for them, too.

Yeah, there’s a war on, and a draft, and right at this very second soldiers are dying and separated from their loved ones, but who cares about that!  We’ve got reality TV to announce!

Man, these doesn’t even work as a commentary on how people would rather watch the Bachelor than Iraq War news because 1) that war wasn’t a war for survival and 2) we had both programs, not one being glossed over for the other, so why would you comment on that?

“Gavril, always good to see you.” The king was borderline giddy.

War.  War.  War.  War.  War.

War.

War.

War.

I’m not letting this go.  You’re all stupid and I hope you lose your war because whoever invades you will probably at least get rid of that ridiculous caste system.

They move on to announcing the Selected girls.

A brunette with smoldering eyes this time. Maybe my age, but she seemed more … experienced.

Oh, look, it’s our slut-shaming character for the book.  I’m just so looking forward to this.

Then America is announced and everyone cheers.