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emma's Reviews > The One
The One (The Selection, #3)
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emma's review
bookshelves: dystopian, fantasy, ya, 2-stars, unpopular-opinion, reread, nope, reviewed
Apr 15, 2015
bookshelves: dystopian, fantasy, ya, 2-stars, unpopular-opinion, reread, nope, reviewed
Read 2 times. Last read April 30, 2020 to May 1, 2020.
I hate to say it, but...it appears humanity peaked in 2014.
Sure, it was before a lot of important things happened (like me being active on ŷ, or me trying Kraft Mac and Cheese Spirals for the first time, or other historic me-centered events), but consider also: in 2014 we were allowed to leave our houses.
Bliss.
Also, books like this were the peak of literature.
On the one hand, bummer, because this is not a very good read, but on the other hand, don’t you wish you could go back to a time when all you needed was a love triangle and a vaguely dystopian narrative to have a good time?
I want to go back to when this book would have been fun for me. Instead of feeling like a low-level punishment in a post-apocalyptic society where the only literature is 78% girl hate and 22% half-hearted character development to try to make up for it.
Sigh.
But I mean...who among us can’t relate to the universal experiences of being a teen relayed in this book?
Like when you have four girlfriends whose entire life purpose is being constantly available to you until you fall in love with them and/or decide they’re the best strategic choice for a life partner.
Or when you’re not like other girls because all the cool girls think petty theft deserves public humiliation followed by lifetime imprisonment, but YOU’RE like um maybe just an exorbitantly long time in jail?? #quirky
Or when you have a secret second boyfriend but get mad because your other boyfriend had a crush in childhood he didn’t tell you about.
Or when you decide to spend a summer afternoon doing some light diplomacy at a tea party. Just for sh*ts and giggles.
We’ve all been there, you know?
While this book is very dumb (and that’s basically a fact at this point), it’s not horrible or grueling to read or anything.
But sometimes it is SO FRUSTRATING.
Like. 46% of America’s personality is that she’s poorer and less privileged than everyone else, but girl that does not come up when she can’t be “bothered� to talk to her maids or orders them around. It’s really gross to read imo.
Also, the previous books in this series are legitimately TEEMING, swamplike, with more girl hate than you can possibly imagine, and when there’s finally one (1) moment where all the girls are hangin� out and getting along...Maxon interrupts.
Which, gag me with a spoon.
But then when he apologizes for interrupting (good, it’s a bad thing you’re here, Maxon, with all the charisma of the end piece of a loaf of bread), the girls say...wait for it...that his presence actually is what made it amaaaaazing.
Excuse me, I have to cringe for a month and a half.
Bottom line: Why did I reread this series? I don’t know! See you when I reread and rant about the spinoffs.
------------
pre-review
sweet relief
review to come / 2 stars
------------
currently-reading updates
starting where i left off in this book when i last picked it up 2 years ago just to feel alive
------------
reread updates
3 years ago, i began a reread of this series that promptly went so terribly i stopped, presumably forever.
but i'm a glutton for punishment and having this high rating on my shelves is bugging me so. let's finish what we started.
Sure, it was before a lot of important things happened (like me being active on ŷ, or me trying Kraft Mac and Cheese Spirals for the first time, or other historic me-centered events), but consider also: in 2014 we were allowed to leave our houses.
Bliss.
Also, books like this were the peak of literature.
On the one hand, bummer, because this is not a very good read, but on the other hand, don’t you wish you could go back to a time when all you needed was a love triangle and a vaguely dystopian narrative to have a good time?
I want to go back to when this book would have been fun for me. Instead of feeling like a low-level punishment in a post-apocalyptic society where the only literature is 78% girl hate and 22% half-hearted character development to try to make up for it.
Sigh.
But I mean...who among us can’t relate to the universal experiences of being a teen relayed in this book?
Like when you have four girlfriends whose entire life purpose is being constantly available to you until you fall in love with them and/or decide they’re the best strategic choice for a life partner.
Or when you’re not like other girls because all the cool girls think petty theft deserves public humiliation followed by lifetime imprisonment, but YOU’RE like um maybe just an exorbitantly long time in jail?? #quirky
Or when you have a secret second boyfriend but get mad because your other boyfriend had a crush in childhood he didn’t tell you about.
Or when you decide to spend a summer afternoon doing some light diplomacy at a tea party. Just for sh*ts and giggles.
We’ve all been there, you know?
While this book is very dumb (and that’s basically a fact at this point), it’s not horrible or grueling to read or anything.
But sometimes it is SO FRUSTRATING.
Like. 46% of America’s personality is that she’s poorer and less privileged than everyone else, but girl that does not come up when she can’t be “bothered� to talk to her maids or orders them around. It’s really gross to read imo.
Also, the previous books in this series are legitimately TEEMING, swamplike, with more girl hate than you can possibly imagine, and when there’s finally one (1) moment where all the girls are hangin� out and getting along...Maxon interrupts.
Which, gag me with a spoon.
But then when he apologizes for interrupting (good, it’s a bad thing you’re here, Maxon, with all the charisma of the end piece of a loaf of bread), the girls say...wait for it...that his presence actually is what made it amaaaaazing.
Excuse me, I have to cringe for a month and a half.
Bottom line: Why did I reread this series? I don’t know! See you when I reread and rant about the spinoffs.
------------
pre-review
sweet relief
review to come / 2 stars
------------
currently-reading updates
starting where i left off in this book when i last picked it up 2 years ago just to feel alive
------------
reread updates
3 years ago, i began a reread of this series that promptly went so terribly i stopped, presumably forever.
but i'm a glutton for punishment and having this high rating on my shelves is bugging me so. let's finish what we started.
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Reading Progress
April 15, 2015
– Shelved
July 3, 2015
–
Started Reading
July 4, 2015
–
Finished Reading
April 30, 2020
–
Started Reading
May 1, 2020
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-50 of 63 (63 new)
message 1:
by
Maja
(new)
-
rated it 2 stars
Apr 30, 2020 09:10AM
I feel you! I liked them the first time but damn, they do not stand the test of time well! Or age 😅
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Oh no! I think you should trust your first instinct and leave this one on the shelf, lol. It's hard for me to think of a more shallow, silly YA dystopian series. But maybe that's just me!
I doubt your disgust would change years later. Haha.
The more I see other people's opinions about this book, the more I feel a need to rethink my life's choices that led me to rate this series highly, lol.
Lizzie wrote: "The more I see other people's opinions about this book, the more I feel a need to rethink my life's choices that led me to rate this series highly, lol."Thanks for my first laugh of the day! 😂
i read the selection, it was ok.i read the elite 2 years later and it was a DNF
it seems like my mind has a theme for this series but whatever lol other people love it though
You’re a trooper but why do you do this to yourself lol
emma this book is SO FUN, it's not amazing, but ahhhhh maxon and america are the cuttest
Maja wrote: "I feel you! I liked them the first time but damn, they do not stand the test of time well! Or age 😅"agree agree agree
Tadiana ✩Night Owl� wrote: "Oh no! I think you should trust your first instinct and leave this one on the shelf, lol. It's hard for me to think of a more shallow, silly YA dystopian series. But maybe that's just me!"tadiana i WISH i could stop myself from rereading books when i know i'm not going to like them...but having this book rated 4 stars was killing me
Smol Porg wrote: "I'm reluctant to buy these books cause I'm suspicious. I'll get my friend to lend them to me later. Whenever that is."the nicest thing i can say about them is that they are very quick reads
Myrtle wrote: "I doubt your disgust would change years later. Haha."correct
Lizzie wrote: "The more I see other people's opinions about this book, the more I feel a need to rethink my life's choices that led me to rate this series highly, lol."hahahahaha
jesse (ourdarkduets) wrote: "i read the selection, it was ok.i read the elite 2 years later and it was a DNF
it seems like my mind has a theme for this series but whatever lol other people love it though"
i do not blame other people for loving it AT ALL - however, try as i might, i am not one of those people
TMR wrote: "Sorry it’s not being so swell."when is anything ever
Kristin wrote: "You’re a trooper but why do you do this to yourself lol"kristin i wish i knew
queltelesx wrote: "emma this book is SO FUN, it's not amazing, but ahhhhh maxon and america are the cuttest"it's not the worst and i see the fun-ness but...i am not a fan of the happy couple
Ik the selection series is trash but that doesn’t stop me from loving it with all my heart
What's worse is that this series continues. Like. When I read the first three books, I was happy with it (tho my cynical attitude has kicked in so I'm 100% sure I'd hate to reread it). But the decision to carry on and add to the series was not a good one. Sometimes a series just needs to die a peaceful death, and not be reanimated repeatedly by a careless necromancer.
~ izzy lightwood ~ wrote: "Ik the selection series is trash but that doesn’t stop me from loving it with all my heart"VALID!
Rea wrote: "What's worse is that this series continues. Like. When I read the first three books, I was happy with it (tho my cynical attitude has kicked in so I'm 100% sure I'd hate to reread it). But the deci..."oof the continuation of this series with the horrible daughter...i am not a fan
i literally LOVED the first three books. but the last two just shouldn’t have happened. i couldn’t even bring myself to finish the first.
I liked the series upon first read but sold them back to HPB not two weeks later. They had literally no plot and were filled with tropes. It was more of a casual pick-up-and-put-down read than an actual book.
Yes to ALL of the above!!! Your review is making me want to change my current rating of, meh 3 stars. 😂🤣
taylor janae � wrote: "i literally LOVED the first three books. but the last two just shouldn’t have happened. i couldn’t even bring myself to finish the first."cannot wait to reread them (i'm a masochist)
Alana wrote: "I liked the series upon first read but sold them back to HPB not two weeks later. They had literally no plot and were filled with tropes. It was more of a casual pick-up-and-put-down read than an a..."this is...a brilliant analysis
Adela wrote: "you are absolutely right!!!!"thank you!!!!
Shannara wrote: "Yes to ALL of the above!!! Your review is making me want to change my current rating of, meh 3 stars. 😂🤣"i honestly reread this mostly so i could drop my rating lmao
The 4th one I disliked even more. Book 3 was bad, but nothing compared to book 4 which I DNFed. All the characters have absolutely no personality, and the storyline is so basic and dull. All the characters make such stupid decisions, its so hard to keep reading. This series is like Throne Of Glass, but without an exciting plot.
Genevieve wrote: "The 4th one I disliked even more. Book 3 was bad, but nothing compared to book 4 which I DNFed. All the characters have absolutely no personality, and the storyline is so basic and dull. All the ch..."can't wait to make the terrible decision to reread those woohoo
Ual! That's the truth. I remember that when this series arrived in Brazil it was a commotion, because the plot at the time was obviously very popular. I saw everyone commenting on this novel, and when I decide to read I believe it was already right at the release of the third volume, and I really liked some characters, I was delighted Lucy, and Marlee and her husband whose name I do not remember, I would not mind reading more about them, but I hate love triangle and saw so much futile and incoherent thing in the plot , and this volume in particular made me angry, because America is that idealization of female character, as well as Maxon being idealized as the perfect man. I hate it, i hate it. Disagree. It's ridiculous. Today I have a giant problem that story.
Kraft Mac and Cheese Spirals? what is this sorcery, I’ve never heard of them and I want them now
If I’ve learned anything from this review it’s 1. Don’t read this. And 2: we need to bring back the phrase “gag me with a spoon.�
Thank you for reminding how much I like the idiom, "gag with me a spoon". It has been a long time sense I've last seen or heard it.
Francisca wrote: "Ual! That's the truth. I remember that when this series arrived in Brazil it was a commotion, because the plot at the time was obviously very popular. I saw everyone commenting on this novel, and w..."soooo fair real life character development
abi wrote: "Kraft Mac and Cheese Spirals? what is this sorcery, I’ve never heard of them and I want them now"THE BEST SHAPE
Daniel wrote: "Thank you for reminding how much I like the idiom, "gag with me a spoon". It has been a long time sense I've last seen or heard it."lily wrote: "If I’ve learned anything from this review it’s 1. Don’t read this. And 2: we need to bring back the phrase “gag me with a spoon.�"
team gag me with a spoon unite!!!
Tori wrote: "Cackling at "with all the charisma of the end piece of a loaf of bread". I read this series back in... oh 2015 or so. I'd be interested in trying it again, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it w..."sometimes disappointment can be fun!
I love the fact that we could leave the house in 2014, I remember I was obsessed with Marry Poppins the good old days
I miss the days before covid, European ground wars being a serious thing in the 21st Century, serious twitter toxicity, and when some chick in a ballgown on a YA dystopian/scifi/fantasy cover with promised love triangles was all I need. Ahhh memories. Also I think you're being too stingy at least 78/80% of America's personality is woe I'm poor.
Scarlett wrote: "I love the fact that we could leave the house in 2014, I remember I was obsessed with Marry Poppins the good old days"fun to reminisce on pre-pandemic life
Dida wrote: "I miss the days before covid, European ground wars being a serious thing in the 21st Century, serious twitter toxicity, and when some chick in a ballgown on a YA dystopian/scifi/fantasy cover with ..."hahahaha
I plan to never reread this series because I just know my memory of the series will not match to how i'd feel about it now. TEAM MAXON AND AMERICA FOREVER
Tomi - Lula wrote: "I plan to never reread this series because I just know my memory of the series will not match to how i'd feel about it now. TEAM MAXON AND AMERICA FOREVER"and that's fair enough
I am both intrigued to reread it now as an adult but scared to do so also because I really loved those books and I don't want to hate them now. But I really am intrigued to just see how bad they were
I just can't bring myself reread this series, kudos to you tho😭😭
Love the Maxon "end of bread loaf" comment. I read the whole series years ago and remembered reading the first spinoff that came out but that killed the series for my high school self. I don't think there's any way I could read those books now.
Sky wrote: "I am both intrigued to reread it now as an adult but scared to do so also because I really loved those books and I don't want to hate them now. But I really am intrigued to just see how bad they were"they were very bad, but i respect this decision process
