Aspen comes by to visit America in her room, and she tries to explain why she had to go on that little failcake of a mission in the first place.

“I’m a part of this, Aspen. I couldn’t have stayed behind.

And by ‘tries to explain,’ I mean this is all we get.

That is a HORRIBLE excuse that doesn’t explain anything.  She’s basically saying “because I wanna!” and everyone goes along with it.  There is no actual reason in there, but everyone treats it as such.  And it just serves to highlight how useless America is.  She’s so flat and passive and useless that this is the best the book could come up with as far as making sure she’s actually around for plot-important stuff.  It couldn’t bother to make her actually useful, so we get bullshit instead.

Then there’s mushy talk about how they both care for each other but aren’t in love anymore.  (Seriously, did I just forget part of the last book?)

But, truly, that was never something I could have held on to. No matter which path I took in life now, music might only be something I pulled out at parties to entertain a guest or a way I relaxed on a weekend.

I looked at myself in the mirror and realized I wasn’t bitter about that

Look at that astounding lack of personality.  I’m really not surprised, because we haven’t seen her be particularly interested in music since she arrived, so it doesn’t come off as any sort of growth or acceptance here, but rather ‘more of the same.’  But music was supposed to be some big part of her life and personality, and at best we get a few offhand mentions that music…exists, finally culminating in this line about how actually she doesn’t care after all.

Maxon stops by, and he spends a moment reassuring Mary, Anne, and Lucy that if any consequences come from the whole “America got shot” thing, he’ll take all the blame and protect them.  America thinks about how people seem more loyal to Maxon than to the king.

Maybe I wasn’t the only one who saw King Clarkson’s methods as barbaric

You know what would help here?

Seeing a few of Clarkson’s methods.

We see literally nothing of the day-to-day running of this government, and we know for a fact that Clarkson didn’t establish the caste system.  He inherited it, and all the Twos (at least, possibly a few more castes) are complicit in keeping it running.  Beyond that, we don’t actually know what Clarkson is doing or how he’s ruling.  Because this book blatantly and openly states that it has no fucks to give about running the country.  Really.  Every time the subject even tangently comes up, someone is on hand to say “Oh, a princess doesn’t need to worry about that.”

So here we’re told that Clarkson is running the country with barbaric methods, but the only thing we really know that’s barbaric is something he didn’t set up.  Perhaps we could include Marlee’s corporal punishment, but that was implied as being an established law as well.

Is this going to be another President Snow situation, where the book needs to blame someone other than society and so it just picks whoever’s in charge and says “that guy did it”?

Maxon and America snuggle on the bed and talk about how neither of them have said ‘love’ yet, but then they put that off some more because apparently that’s not something you should say right after getting shot.  I’m on board with that.  Instead, America wants to talk about who she’s going to invite to that televised tea party (remember that thing?) and she wants Maxon’s opinion/approval because she’s going to do something ill advised again.

We skip to the party and find out that she invited Georgia and Princess Nicoletta (the Italian princess from the previous book).

They spend a bit of time walking around the party and openly making fun of Celeste’s celebrity guests. (Who else is she going to invite? These, literally, are her peers.  One of them is a Lady Gaga stand-in, and the book’s distaste towards her in particular is practically cloying.)

Then they go to a back corner of the party to talk about rebel stuff, as America introduces the two to each other as ‘rebel leader’ and ‘rebel sympathizer’ instead of just princess and friend.  And, while I rather approve of the concept, couldn’t she have picked a less…televised place to do this?  Are you really telling me that the girls were told to invite two friends and then don’t get a single moment of alone time with said friends before or after the party?

They spend some time talking about the book to get all the character’s caught up on the situation, repeat that brain-bashingly idiotic line about how the random group of rabble-rousers is more qualified to fight off the PALs than the government that literally has all the resources, and finally America suggests that Italy do the weapon’s supply since Maxon can’t.

“If anyone found out … ,” she said.

“I know. I’ve thought about that.”

Have you thought about how it would be considered an act of war?

No, really, one country messing in with the autonomy of another country and supplying weapons to their enemies is a BIG FUCKING DEAL.  (Although sort of fitting that America is suggesting this, since her namesake has a history of doing the same…)  I’m not saying it can’t happen, but it needs more of a line than just “I’ve thought about that.” and then nothing else.  Nicolette agrees to the plan, and then they all start talking about other things so no one discovers their illicit dealings.

But look at Queen Amberly. She’s so much more than a Four,” Georgia said kindly. Nicoletta and I both nodded.

“She’s an incredible woman. It’s been a privilege to live with her,” I shared.

You know, book, just continually talking about how Amberly is awesome doesn’t actually serve as an acceptable substitute for giving her a real personality.