After the events of last chapter, they all file out of the room, and America gets in a fight with Elise, because Elise keeps being all sensible and pointing out that you can’t just flip the table in a fit of pique and expect that to fix everything.  America keeps screaming that what they were doing was wrong, while continuing to fail to understand why what she did was wrong, too.

The king comes in and drags her out of the room.  Unfortunately, it’s not to do anything to her, but rather to let her sit in the corner and eavesdrop as Clarkson and Maxon have an argument.  Because no matter how useless America is, we have to keep shoving her into the plot, because she’s our viewpoint character.

This a big reason for why I don’t like the popularity of 1^st Person POV.  Yes, it works fine for a lot of plots, but only when the main character has a reason to be involved in enough events that the book makes sense.  If the character doesn’t have a good reason to be in on the entire plot, then we get shit like this.  3^rd Person would have gone over so much better for this, because then we wouldn’t need to have America drag her taffeta-covered ass along for the plot that (let’s face it) mostly doesn’t even involve her.

Maxon tries to point out that America is really popular with the lower castes, and also, remember those lower castes?  They make up most of the population and we kind of really need them?  Clarkson brushes aside such concerns with no comment and proposes that they end the Selection with no choice made and Maxon pick his wife in a more normal way.

Also, Amberly is in there, but when she tries to talk she’s hushed up after two words, and then she’s forgotten about until the end of the scene where:

The queen scurried over, placing her arm through the king’s, leaving us alone and speechless.

Remember earlier in the books, where they kept trying to impress on us that the queen is just so strong and smart and awesome?  Apparently the book had to keep saying that on repeat, because it has no idea how to actually show it.

Maxon gets granted a few days to decide if he wants to take the king’s offer, although there’s no real comment on what will happen if he doesn’t…  And then the two split with more forced drama about America wondering if he’ll do it.  Bullshit, enough already, we KNOW that they’re in love and want to marry and we HAVE KNOWN since CHAPTER ONE and the only word to the contrary is coming from outside sources.  If America would just stop freaking out about what other people say, this so-called drama wouldn’t exist.

During the conversation, Clarkson randomly mentioned that Maxon had been fond of a French princess (in saying that they could find him someone who looked like her), so now guess what America is obsessing about?

And as frivolous as it was when I considered everything else going on, I couldn’t stop thinking about this French girl.

Yes, you could be worried about that guy who is probably getting murdered in a dark alley right now, or you can wonder about some girl that Maxon has literally never mentioned and obsess over whether or not he still likes her.

The other girls come to visit her in her room and they all chitchat about who might go home next.

Kriss giggled. “None of us is an Amberly, are we?”

Well, can you stand in a corner silently and do nothing? 

They spend several pages with Celeste being really sorry for doing shitty things to the other girls, because her change of heart was apparently 100% complete and steady.  Shit, are we sure this isn’t some doppelganger rebel plant?  She’s a completely different character now!

On the other hand, Elise is a surprising turn for this novel.  She manages to interject a different perspective every time she talks, and she’s very focused on duty and integrity.  I wish we could see more of her.

They chat for a while longer, until Maxon comes by and wants to talk to America alone.  He basically just says that ‘lol, progress in this book?  Nope.  Everything will continue on exactly the same as before.’

The next day the girls all do friendship girly things and it takes several pages.  While cute, it doesn’t really do anything that the last several pages of friendship stuff did, and these two scenes are right on the heels of each other.

After that, the king sends for America.  Turns out, the Italian royal family invited the Illea royal family to visit, and that invitation included America.  The king thinks it’s because she’s up to something, and that whatever thing she’s up to is the whole reason she’s in the Selection, not Maxon.

Clarkson decides that they should take all of the girls and hope the Italians develop a preference for one of the others, and they don’t want to do anything to upset these allies that they’re trying to woo.  Maxon claims that that would be useless because they already like America.

The king looked at Maxon, venom in his eyes. “Are you declaring your choice right now then? Is the Selection over?”

My pulse stopped altogether.

“No,”

Okay, but WHY NOT?

The start of this book had Maxon telling us that the only thing stopping him from picking America right then and there was that they needed to build up her popularity so that the king would be forced to accept the decision.  That’s been done.  Last chapter had Maxon telling her that the entire country adored her, and even Celeste keeps talking about how popular she is.  And, even though Clarkson keeps suggesting things like ending the Selection, he doesn’t seem to act like he has any real power over the decision.  He suggests, but then leaves it to Maxon to actually decide.

So WHY CAN’T MAXON JUST PICK AMERICA LIKE THEY’VE ALREADY MADE PLANS TO DO?

The king says he won’t like America unless she does something for him, and basically he wants her to film pro-caste propaganda commercials.  (At least this is something America has actually heard of before.)

This plot is so fucking choppy.  There is absolutely no carry-over from one thing to the next.  It’s a series of tasks, which America either does or doesn’t do, and then after that there’s just another random task.  There is no progression, no flow, no plan to any of this.  It’s a bunch of sitcom episodes.  “The One With The Convicting.”  “The One With The Rebel Plot.”  “The One With Extra Dresses.”

Clarkson does finally get a bit of personality besides being cackling evil, as it becomes clear that he really does think he’s doing what’s necessary to keep the country together, and he’s just afraid any change means disaster.  He also finally out and out says that he has the power to disallow a marriage between them, so there’s that.  Between this and Elise showing some life, the book is actually starting to show a smidge of improvement.  Or at least of potential.

After America says she won’t do it, Clarkson says that if she really loved Maxon she’d do what was necessary to stay with him.  America decides she won’t say “I love you” under pressure, and I really don’t understand why this subplot hasn’t been wrapped up already.  They’ve had plenty of more quiet moments in which to get this over with already.

Naturally, this whole love thing is what drives our two kids apart again, and not the fact that Maxon goes “but why won’t you participate in the subjugation of the lower castes for my sake?”