After a polarized nation was broken by the threat of civil war, States have now become countries. And in New Maine, things have gotten worse. Giving my family a better life is everything. And my selection to attend an elite prep school suddenly offers my family a dramatically different life–food on the table, a roof over their heads, and a fighting chance at a future. Everything is going great … Everything is going great until some of my friends begin ghosting me, and then disappear. Soon it becomes clear this “chance of a lifetime” isn’t the Holy Grail I was promised. And the attention from one of Easton’s elite has me questioning why a boy with a golden future wants to risk it by being seen with me.
But when I find out why I’m really at this school, I may have to trust him if I want to live.
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I have mixed feelings about this book. On the positive side I think the plot and the overall story is well written. The world building is interesting and has a bit of a Hunger Games feel to it. I think the biggest issue is the main character Tori. For about 85-90% of the novel I didn’t really like her. She is such a bundle of nerves and anxieties that it made me uneasy. Which I suppose is a kudos to the author for making the feelings come alive. But I found it most difficult to invest in her story when she has such a negative attitude about herself, so many doubts. Towards the end when the action picks up and she begins to change the overall story improves drastically.
In short I’d like more action as there was in the last quarter of the book and less negativity. Three stars because the ending showed potential.
I received this book for free from eBook Discovery. I voluntarily review this book. This is my honest review.
The United States is no longer The United States as it has been torn apart by the threat of civil war. The threat has caused each state to split off from each other and have each became their own country. Selected is set in the future in what is now known as New Maine formerly known as the state of aine.
Selected tells the story of kids attending an elite school with different groups of students. There are five groups at Easton the most competitive high school in the country. The five groups are the Cerebrals, Athletes, Tech Nerds, Legacy Kids and the Sponsored. Everyone who attends Easton compete against one another for the best or highest score so they can get into college.
Selected tells the story of Victoria Faith Aldridge known to her friends as Tori who is one of the Sponsored students meaning she was selected to attend Easton because of her special talent, dancing. As a Sponsored student Tori’s family will get fed and housed for as long as she attends school at Easton. She has a very strict set of rules that she must follow or she will lose her status and her family will no long reap of the benefits.
Tori is trying very hard to follow all the rules in order to keep her family fed and taken care of and so she can go to college. It’s not long before Tori starts to notice that something is not quite right at Easton. Some of the students are disappearing. Where have all the students gone? What has happened to them?
Tori has no idea but she sure plans on finding out with the help of her new boyfriend Caius Fitch a Legacy Kid. Caius and Tori start slipping out at night so they can be together but if they are caught they could be thrown out of school and Tori’s family would lose everything.
Selected is a very engrossing read with wonderful characters and an engaging plot. I really hope to see more of the world created for Selected in future books. I would love to see more of how the system in Selected works and how it came to be. I would also like to see how this system works in the outside world or what kind of regime the outside world has to follow. I would also like to get to know more about Tori’s brother Trevor.
I highly recommend Selected to all dystopian fans.