(As per request from my good friend Charly, here is an Elaborate Review™, at the best of my ability)

I will not lie to you. Had I read this when I was younger, I would have eaten it tf up and licked the plate. I can practically FEEL the itch to re-read this series, highlight the dramatic almost-declarations of love that seem to linger unspoken in the air between America and Aspen/Maxon from the very moment the characters stepped on the page. I can FEEL the urge to recreate the hundereds of thousands of ballgowns that seem to be the only thing these girls get to wear (apart from that ONE time).

But alas, I am a 26 year old Wattpad-veteran who was born and raised in silly, cringe fandom culture and not only survived it, but came out the other side a cosplayer, fanartist and reader with a fascination for dystopian sci-fi & fantasy, and so have also read Better Books Than This One.

Like I said in the review for the first book, it truly hits the sweet spot of Wattpad-One Direction fanfiction à la 2012 or something, combined with the tension and questionable, fictional United States to come, many centuries into the future. "Rebels" that seek to "take down the kingdom" of this fictional not-US-country that are lethal but necessary to start the revolution needed for a reboot of the dystopian society we find ourselves within (but also like... we get hundreds of "pretty" and "beautiful" dresses that could put any and every GirlsGoGames-dressup game to shame so...). We also (of course) throughout the book are "torn" between two ✨️super cute boys✨️ that represent America's past and potential future (the CHARACTER America, not the country. Though you could probably argue that it for sure can be applied to that too for Deeper Meaning™-purposes). I laughed throughout the entire first book, and dove into the second book thinking it would be more of the same. 

IMAGINE my DISAPPOINTMENT when this "love triangle" takes the front seat in the second book 'The Elite', and could have been an email. The entire book could be summarized in a single chapter, if you will. America completely disregards the very public display of potential consequences to the actions she takes, and keeps making them for the entire second book without a single moment of serious reconsideration. One of her closest friends literally risks death for the SAME CONSEQUENCES AMERICA MIGHT FACE IF SHE KEEPS THIS SHT UP, AND YET??? AND ✨️YET✨️??? Absolute madness. You could probably skip the entire second book and hop straight into the third one and Nothing Would Get Lost On You. The only thing that will make 'The Elite' the book to keep me up at night is that One Diary Entry explaining how to make a power-hungry leader take over an entire country with minimal effort. Hearing this diary entry just a few days after the US presidential election of 2024 hit the funny bone, but "not funny-haha, funny-✨️weird✨️". If you know, you know.

So, onto the third book. 'The One'. My god. If America did not yet get on your nerves at this point, if you had not yet lost faith and realized that "huh, yeah you know what, maybe Aspen and Maxon should just hook up instead and leave America out of this", this is the book to do it for you. America keeps swinging between her undying (please let it die please let it die pleas-) love for both boys, (DESPITE WHAT WE LEARNED IN THE SECOND BOOK, MIND YOU, AND ACTUALLY WAS ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS AND RULES WE LEARNED ABOUT THE COMPETITION, MIND YOU) while also swinging wildly between the mindset of "I don't love Maxon anymore" and being jealous SICK over him even MENTIONING another girl's name IN PASSING. 
Maxon does SO MUCH for her; stalls the selection, pulls strings, keeps secrets, saves people and she just goes ":/// naaah but you know what I don't know if you love me or not bcs you're still the 'first price' of this entire competition and keep dating other girls" while he LITERALLY SAYS, MULTIPLE TIMES, LITERALLY; "tell me you love me and I will put an end to the Selection. Just say the word and it'll be over". LIKE, BESTIE. YOUR MAN IS ON HIS KNEES FOR YOU. WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?? 

Let me explain to you what the problem is; Aspen. Aspen is of course the problem. Because in this very vaugely described world with intricate political plays we could have spent time figuring out and exploring, the entire "dystopia"-genre only serves as a spinning wheel of random Situations™ we can force both blorbos into to either pull any variation of America×Cute Boy closer together or further apart. It serves absolutely no purpose other than to force this love triangle to be born out of drama (the bad kind) rather than Drama™ (the good kind). 

Anyway, the sequel series to this is about the heir to Maxon supposedly going through the exact same procedure but with 35 guys thirsting over the princess in question, and I have watched enough Bachelorette during sick days to know that it might be ✨️funny✨️ to see how that actually plays out. I believe someone else called this series "fast food", and I'm willing to agree; it's probably bad for you, not very great quality, but it tastes ✨️fine✨️ and sometimes you get something kinda fun out of it. Additonally, I have been so incredibly spoiled by the mere POTENTIAL of a canonically queer throuple in the Legendborn Cycle that I forget that 'The Selection' is an example of what traditional "love triangles" actually look like, and I will never be able to read about one the same way again. Absolute disaster. Just like every single live-sent tv program America was a part of in this series. 

Oh! Also! If you have not yet gotten an idea of what kind of series this is, I'll let you know now that out of the 35 girls joining The Selection, a couple names stand out among the ones that are named at all:

- Tuesday
- Tiny
- America (canonically named after the country of the United States) 🦅🦅

Solid conclusion to the series.

I only have two complaints one being I wish the queen did

not die two being I wish that the books were longer the scenes were shorter than I would have liked

What a beautiful way to end this journey America has gone on! Definitely my favorite book in the series! So many moments were devastating, and others so wonderful, but it all just made sense together! I loved every bit of it!

Too much drama.

Disclaimer: I did not find anything to like about this book so I'm going to be brutally honest with this review. If you loved the book, you may not want to continue reading. 😂

Perhaps the title, The One, was a hint to how I would give it one star. Perhaps I should not have picked up a series because it was popular and continued reading to say that I finished a story so that people couldn't tell me I don't deserve an opinion unless I know the end. (Actually, that's not a perhaps. Don't waste your time with books you don't like, even if they are quick.) I've seen this series described as mental junk food, and that is a perfect description. But it never gave me the pleasure that junk food does, BUT it did make me really appreciate other actual pieces of literature.

First off, we have America. The ultimate cliche girl who prefers pants, doesn't like makeup, thinks she's ugly, and all that jazz. She's "brave", "unique", (even though I only recall a few examples of when she was reckless with good intentions) and "has a good moral compass and love of doing the right thing" even though she has abundantly shown herself to do the wrong thing way more, such cheating on a guy she's dating (with zero remorse or conscience pricks), jumping to whatever conclusion her brain reaches first, and being impure. And no, I don't care if that's "the norm" for the series, immodesty still isn't right and I'm not going to adjust my opinion on this for a character's trashy standards.

Then we have the boys, the 2/3 of the love triangle. Maxon, the prince, who in the first book, actually seems pretty decent! He keeps his distance, he has standards, I had expectations for him! Expectations WHICH HE SLAUGHTERED when he (probably catching on from America) dates and flirts with the other girls and keeps one especially for backup. He hangs out with one of the most hated girls just because, oh woe is me oh poor little neglected boy, he wants the experience. BAH. Aspen doesn't get much better. He definitely never treated America like a lady, not that she gave him any reason to. But in this book, he doesn't show up much unless it's to give a hurt look to America or whatever. But then his problem is quickly done away with

when all of a sudden we find out that he's in love with someone else! Now everyone can live happily ever after, hooray!🎉

I'm sorry, but that's a cheap plot.

Then, the one character I liked, Marlee, ends up destroying my faith in humanity as well when

she cheats on Maxon. And everyone's like, aw poor Marlee, she doesn't deserve that! First of all, she could have gotten way worse. Secondly, she literally broke an oath and the law AND was impure, why should she have any special kind of sympathy?

I liked the maids too, until they conspired with America to design a dress to attract Maxon. 🙄 That, by the way, is the only time America takes the time to think of something with a plan. The only character I ended up remotely liking was the queen, who turned out to be a bit spineless

and she died, not only in a lackluster ending but it seriously wasn't fun.

Then there's the tyrannical bully of a king who-ah, what's this? Another weak plotpoint?

HE DIES!

Also, can we talk about how when something interesting starts to happen America gets locked up so we don't get to see it?? 

I could go on (especially about how the whole politics and war subplot makes no sense), but I'll leave with this: This book teaches that if you are attracted to someone and have feelings for them, you can do a whole bunch of horrible things and it's fine because it's meant to be, and therefore beautiful, because all's fair in love and war or whatnot, and you'll end up together in the end! It shows that a lack of self control or ability to stop and think is just fine and dandy if you have good intentions. It's false romance.