Hey, speaking of Aspen-the-missing, he shows up in America’s room.  But he leaves again right after.  Aspen, buddy, you are not making a good showing so far.

Oh, I forgot to mention, when Maxon got mad over the demand that he marry America, the rebels said there was one other girl on the selection they’d accept, but America left before they said who.  Naturally, in this chapter, she obsesses over which one it is while all the girls do their best to avoid talking to each other.

The queen notices the tension and asks what’s wrong, only to be told “uh, we’ve all been shoved into competition with each other, what did you expect?”

Queen Amerbly tries to convince them that they’re all so super close now, they just can’t see it, but they’ll totally be super close after the selection because of this shared experience.  The books keep trying to push this idea on us, but I still don’t believe it.  At no point, anywhere, in any of these books, has there been any sense of connection in this group.  America rarely interacts with anyone, and only with Marlee did she have anything approaching a friendship.  I can totally get what Amberly is saying as a concept and I do like that idea – hell, I’ve experienced it before, I know you don’t have to like someone to be bonded to them through shared hardship – but the book has consistently failed to show it, primarily because the book has consistently failed to focus on anything besides romance.  75% of these books are scenes between America and a boy, so there’s no way for us to get a look at her relationships with anyone else.

And what do you know, after that scene, America walks out of the room and straight into Maxon, wow, I’m so shocked.

They actually do have a rather serious conversation about the fact that they keep letting their doubts and faults break them apart every time they get close.  America points out that Maxon keeps saying he loves her but has yet to actually commit, and Maxon points out that she has a tendency to shut him out at the slightest provocation.  I like this.  I mean, it’s repetitive, of course, but I don’t think they’ve been this frank and self-aware thus far.  Actually, I wouldn’t even want this conversation to come sooner, because of course they had to stumble around messing up before realizing stuff.  This…this could almost count as character development.

Well, to caveat, while I’m fine with it not happening sooner, replacing some of that repetition with actual plot would help.  There was a lot of shit-all going on over the past two books, and the only way to make this sort of relationship pattern palatable is to give us something else to break up the monotony.

They part ways with America still in a huff and telling him to focus on the other girls if he’s really so concerned about only getting ‘one shot’ at a relationship.

Time passes, America and Maxon don’t talk, and the palace gets decorated for Christmas.

Wait.

So.

Halloween is too much of an extravagance, but you still have Christmas decorations?

The king returns, and America runs into him in the hallway.  He brings up the fact that America is the only one getting a weekly stipend anymore, because Elise (the only other one qualifying) gave hers up voluntarily.

That didn’t surprise me. Elise was a Four, but her family owned high-end hotels. They weren’t hurting for money the way the shopkeepers back in Carolina were.

So…

http://amongthenarcissi.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/hilton-sisters.jpg

Seriously, when you put the Hilton Sisters in one of your ‘lower’ castes, you know you’ve royally fucked up.

Or, well, you should know.

The king implies that America should do the same, and if she doesn’t that she’s only here for the money and not Maxon.  So, America goes along with it, because it’s not like her family was dependent on that or nothing, right?

She goes back to her room where her maids are berating Lucy because Lucy is really distracted lately and keeps leaving her work undone.

Apparently even after the maids stop bickering, the ‘mood’ in her room isn’t right for writing a letter home, so she goes wandering the halls looking for the right mood.  Instead, she accidently eavesdrops on Maxon and Kriss.  Kriss wants to go on a date somewhere not the palace, and Maxon denies without giving an actual reason.

“For the rest of your life, it would be like this. Beautiful walls, but walls all the same. My mother scarcely leaves the palace more than once or twice a year.”

But WHYYYYYYYYYYYY?  That doesn’t make any sense!  Why the hell wouldn’t they be allowed to go anywhere?  Is it too dangerous because the whole country wants to kill all the royals?  Is it some bullshit cultural thing?

Or did this book, once again, just take a steaming pile of shit on women and then act like that’s something SO FUCKING NATURAL that no one would question it?

Then there is much shmoopy talk and they make out.