America responds to the events of last chapter by becoming reclusive (or rather, even more reclusive) and avoiding Kriss.  But eventually she has to go to dinner with the others instead of taking it in her room.  During the meal, someone comes in and delivers that the king and Maxon will be returning that night.  But there’s not going to be a big celebration.  Why would there be?  Does this country throw a party every time someone steps out of the palace on business?  Add that to the list of reasons Illea is a shitfest.

On the way back to her room, America sees her maids and overhears Anne and Mary talking.  Apparently Anne made Lucy cry, because she told Lucy she can’t have/do something.  Mary accuses Anne of being jealous of the other two, based on how long each of them have been at the palace.  Seems there’s some hierarchy where “time living at the palace” = “seniority/superiority,” and Anne is the middle of the pack.  For once, I’m on board with that.  It usually is the ones in the middle that are the most concerned with status, because the top people don’t have to care and the bottom people are too far from the top to do anything anyway.

Also, Anne wants to marry up and is upset that Mary/someone thinks that’s a mean/bad/selfish thing to want.

America finally enters the room and comes up with an excuse to completely ignore Anne’s tears, pretending that she doesn’t even see them.  This completely fails as a character moment, however, because it’s America’s go-to response for everything.  If she were normally the comforting type, and if we could see her as that, then her deciding to go against her nature would 1) prove that she knows Anne well enough to know that would be welcome and 2) show that America cares about others enough to adjust her actions.  But when it’s exactly what she would have done anyway, it’s meaningless.

America goes to bed and spends even more time thinking about her romance issues without adding anything new to the conversation.  I swear, that’s like half this book.  Just America sitting somewhere, not doing anything, quietly thinking the same thoughts over and over.

Then we get more pages out of Gregory Illea’s diary, in which he talks about how he took over the country.  No, really.  He even calls it taking over the country, as if he’s aware that he’s a mad despot.  I’m not sure why he’s chronicling all this in a diary, though.  Presumably he already chronicled it while it was happening.

Apparently the first step is to gather vast amounts of wealth. 

My lack of background in politics hasn’t been an issue in gaining allegiance.  In fact, I would say avoiding that sector altogether may be one of my greatest strengths.  No one trusts politicians, and why would they?

Yeah, well, no one trusts filthy rich businessmen of questionable morals, either.

Could this book get any more right-wing?

Also, calling politicians shady has all the nuance and originality as calling rom-coms poorly characterized and plotted.

Gregory then goes on to talk about how he’s a smooth-operating conman who makes only vague promises and remains calm while the rest of the country goes into hysterics.  No shit, I’m not putting a spin on things, that’s actually what he says.  Also, apparently he’s running for office against the current president?  Or a vice-presidency?  Hard to say.

I’m pretty sure it will only take two or three inconspicuously worded deals to have me running everything.

The evil country was set up by an evil conman.

But at least it seems to be done on purpose. 

America finishes reading and is terribly confused by all that.

Was I missing something?  Collapsing what system?

How are you confused over the fact that the evil conman wants to completely destroy the government?  You know that the caste system was set up by dear-old Greg.  You’ve made references to that fact.  You can’t be confused about the fact that something else must have existed before it.

I considered hunting through the book for what happened to his daughter, but I was already so disoriented, I decided against it.

Lernin’ be hard.  Too hard for our poor protagonist here.

So she goes out on the balcony instead and sees Maxon walking around alone on the grounds.  Alone.  On the grounds.  The same ones that border the rebel-infested forest.  She gets his attention and asks him to come up to see her.

I was essentially about to ask Maxon if he knew he was sitting on top of something that was much less altruistic than the pubic had been lead to believe.

…

… …

Are you telling me that there are actually people who believe the caste system is “altruistic”?

When she opens the door, Maxon has a camera and snaps a few pictures of her looking surprised.  Um…okay?  When did this flare for photography happen?  Surely in a book and a half, that should have come up before now.

They talk about his trip, and Maxon says that by the time they got there the dispute had been resolved.  At least he admits that that makes no sense.

We spent a few days walking through old cities and trying to speak to the natives.

While technically correct, there’s a lot of racist baggage attached to that word.  “Locals” would have been more neutral.

Maxon then theorizes that the whole trip was just a test to see how Maxon deals with the unexpected.  Wow, Clark’s kind of a dick, isn’t he?  You’d think he’d at least tell his wife so she doesn’t freak out and cry in her room.

America decides that Maxon is just such a nice guy that she can’t burden him with knowledge about the diary.  It doesn’t cross her mind that if Maxon is so nice and shit, maybe he should know that the caste system is full of crap.  You know, since he’s too self-involved to be able to notice that. 

Seriously, no one is even making an effort to have the caste system presented in a good light!  There’s no…I don’t know, propaganda, no cultural beliefs that would prop up the system and make it sound like a good idea.  There’s nothing, but for some reason, people still think it’s a good idea.

Maxon bought her a bracelet while out on his trip, and he didn’t buy anything for anyone else.  It makes America “hopeful” because apparently she forgot that he likes her?  For the last several chapters, it’s been all about her feelings for him, not his for her, so what’s this line doing here? But then her hope is all squashed as she thinks about how Kriss is a better person than her for some reason.

We haven’t even seen Kriss do anything.  So far, the best argument in her favor is that she hasn’t yet fucked something up.  Her biggest selling point is that she doesn’t have any knocks against her.  When the best you can claim to be is a blank slate, that’s nothing to brag about.

Or, you know, freak out about if you’re not that person.

So America starts crying and says she’s all confused.  Maxon says she can ask him anything she’s confused about, but she doesn’t, because I fucking hate this book.  Maxon is surprisingly cool with that and just reassures her and then leaves.

Max, buddy, haven’t you figure it out  yet?  A girl who is this wishy-washy would make a terrible queen.  You’d have to wait six months for every decision from her.