Where to begin... 
 Let's start with the bad. 
 I liked the first two novellas I read, and I forgave their lack of substance because they were novellas, and I assumed I'd get so much more with the first real installment of this series. But no. 
 It seemed to me that Kiera Cass got this idea in her head and went with it. There was no fine-tuning. No refining and improving. Typically, when you come up with an idea, you maybe think of something with potential, but before the final product, there's a lot of work that goes into that original idea. You build on it, you expand, maybe you take some parts away that just aren't working and add something new that will. To me, The Selection came across as an idea mentioned in brainstorming and nothing more was done with it. 
 I say this from the world-building side. A huge weakness in this book. Cass was forcing this world to be relevant to the world we have today. Between the States, China, Russia, America's debt, a third and fourth world war... This story wanted to be its own world entirely. Not a future of what we have now. Not to mention the probability of Cass's history, it's so unlikely that it was hard to buy this world. As I was reading, I ended up disregarding Cass's idea of how Illea came to be and made it my own. 
 The Selection also lacked description. The characters were only mentioned by superficial characteristics. No one had much depth when it came to personality and character development. And the name were just horrendous, but I was able to overlook it. (But I really hate "stupid" names, and this series has a lot of them.) And not just characters, but also settings. The world-building was bad, but even what we were given lacked so much substance. I have no idea what this palace looks like. Apparently there's nice carpeting and intricate flower arrangements and a garden somewhere, but I have no idea what this palace really looked like other than "there's the Great Room there, and the dining room over there, and the Women's Room is down this hallway, and around that corner and up the stairs is the guest rooms for the Selected." Just very vague. Like the world-building, I ended up ignoring Cass's minimal descriptions and just imagined my own castle. 
 I also feel like the love triangle is a little insufferable. But I guess that's what YA is - teenagers with nothing to do but cry about young love. I rolled my eyes so much as America described her relationship with Aspen. I just wanted to shake her and at yell at her to get the hell over it. Having been a teenager once and having thought I'd marry this guy when I was 17, I get it. But now that I'm in my mid-twenties and have hindsight, I see how damn stupid I was and how trivial all of my teenage relationships were. So I just have a hard time feeling sorry for America and her relationship with Aspen. Like HELLOOOO! You've been selected to possibly marry a prince and be royalty! MOVE ON! 
 Now... With all of this complaining and all of the negatives with this story, there is something so endearing about it. Everything was shallow, but I was still drawn into what was happening. I still developed an investment here, and I am SO rooting for Prince Maxon. I desperately hope America stops being a selfish, whiny brat and gets a grip. I'm eager to get The Elite and continue on in the series. I really enjoyed this book! I thought I was done with YA novels; many of the reasons I've started disliking it so much is because of all the reasons I listed above. But something about this series is telling me it's okay for The Selection to be a guilty pleasure - even with all its flaws. 
 I wish Kiera Cass had better help with this novel. The idea is there. The appeal is there. But I wish she had editors pushing her to go deeper. Take more time on small details. Put more effort into the development of this world. This book would have been a million times more fantastic if Cass had some more patience and explored her world better.