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The Crown (The Selection, Book 5) by Kiera Cass

It’s possible that I may have put WAY too much thought into this review.
(But in my defense, this is more a review of The Hier & The Crown.)

I’ll admit it, my heart was not in this book. I only read it out of principle to finish off the series. Book 4, The Heir, really turned me off. And while the first three made for a good trilogy, it should have ended there.

The killer for the final two books was the daughter, Eadlyn. I knew from the beginning of The Heir that I did not like her, but it wasn’t until about half way through The Crown that I figured out why.

*Tangent*
Have you ever wondered why Loki, a villain, is one of the most beloved characters in the MCU? Well, aside from just being a cool character, it helps that he’s always working opposite Thor, who’s probably the most bland, two dimensional character in the MCU. Nothing against Chris Hemsworth, it’s just the nature of who Thor is. Loki has ambition, desire, goals he wants to accomplished whether they be good or bad. Moreover, he has inner conflict, between his desire for power and his love for the family that took him in. Thor just wants to drink and smash things with his hammer, and his only conflict is with whoever happens to be trying to kill him at the time.

And therein lies the problem with Eadlyn. Her story is being read through the eyes of a reader who just got done falling in love with America and all her emotional baggage. With their relationship as mother and daughter, and the premise of them both being thrown into a Selection process they didn’t want, it’s hard not to compare the two.

Eadlyn is Thor. She has no ambition, no motivation, and no desire to be a part of something, not even a relationship. Her indecisiveness in the midst of key moments is almost frustrating, the only times she makes decisions is when she’s put into situations where she’s forced to, she doesn’t actually WANT to make decisions. It often seems like the story and events are happening around her, and she's just along for the ride. Like the old saying goes, “you can’t help someone who won’t help themselves.” Well, I can’t root for a character to accomplish her goal when she has no goal.

This is a complete 180 from America’s character in the first three books. While it’s true that America’s goals, ambitions, and desires kept changing throughout the story, they were still always there. You knew what they were, and you wanted her to succeed. On top of that, like Loki, she also had inner conflict, between Maxon and Aspen, and between wanting to leave the Selection and wanting to support her family.

A story without conflict really only has its characters to rely on. And, unfortunately, The Heir and The Crown dropped the ball, and were ultimately an unnecessary continuation to a completed story. For anyone planning on reading The Selection series, I encourage you to stop at The One, and just appreciate it as a trilogy.