The Prince by Kiera Cass

Before thirty-five girls were chosen to compete in the Selection...

Before Aspen broke America's heart...

There was another girl in Prince Maxon's life...













Rating: 2,5/5 stars

“I saw her search her mind for an alternative path, but she quickly saw there wasn’t one. She was a servant to her crown, I was a servant to mine, and our masters would never cross.”

Do you ever just feel nostalgic about a series you haven’t read or heard about in a while? I haven’t started The One yet (nor The Heir or The Crown, but are those two still be considered to be part of The Selection series or a spin-off?) but yesterday I had some free time and was assaulted with nostalgia feels (plus, I was curious to see Maxon’s point of view of the story).

I have to admit I was having a lot of fun until the actual Selection came to play. During those first chapters we get to see Maxon as, well, a person. He’s nervous and confused, and he seemed more like a regular boy with a lot of responsibilities trying to make the best of them.

But when the Selection starts… I don’t know, everything just goes south. It was so strange to go from those chapters where he had a particular voice (both in his inner monologues and when talking with his parents and advisors) to when he meets America and an entire new pedant character comes to play. The whole “dear” thing is so creepy! And the Maxon from the first chapters would have never said that or even been like that. There was a great difference between the character the author created for the first few chapters of this novella from the one she had created for The Selection.

“Maybe it was a bit shallow, but was it so bad that I wanted someone attractive?”

                                  

Maxon went from cute to creepy in one second when he started meeting the contestants and treating them like cattle. The fact that he eliminates the first girl because she’s not as beautiful as the rest was such a dick move, and he tried to pass it off as “logical” because they had nothing in common and she had no “winning personality” (because America was such a well-rounded and interesting person!).

Overall, this was fun for the first few chapters until creepy Maxon and his sexists comments came to play. He was never my favourite character in the series, and even though I don’t love America I still believe she deserves better than this asshat.