Saturday, January 26, 2013

REVIEW: Throne Of Glass / The Selection (COMPARING)

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       Throne of Glass                                                                                      The Selection
                                                 
Book: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas                               Book: The Selection by Kiera Cass
Published: August 7th 2012 by Bloomsbury USA               Published: April 24th 2012 by HarperTeen
Pages: 404                                                                                 Pages: 327
Source: Library                                                                          Source: Library

After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt                        For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the
mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old                         chance  of a lifetime. The opportunity to
assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before                             escape the life laid out for them since
 the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her                                 to be swept up in a world of glittering
 her freedom on one condition: she must act as                         gowns and priceless jewels. To live in a
 his champion in a competition to find a new                               and compete for the heart of gorgeous
 royal assassin. Her opponents are men-thieves                              Prince Maxon.
 and assassins and warriors from across the                         But for American Singer, being Selected is
empire, each sponsored by a member of the                            a nightmare. It mean turning her back on
king's council. If she beats her opponents in a                       her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste
 series of eliminations, she'll serve the kingdom                        below her. Leaving her home to enter a
 for three years and then be granted her freedom.                  fierce competition for a crown she doesn't
 Celaena finds her training sessions with the                          want. Living in a palace that is constantly
captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and                        threatened by violet rebel attacks.
exhilirating. But she's bored stiff by court life.                              Then America meets Prince Maxon.
Things get a little more interesting when the prince         Gradually she starts to question all the plans 
 starts to show interest in her... but it's the gruff                 she's made for herself-- and realizes that the
Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.            life she's dreamed of may not compare to a
 Then one of the other contestants turns up dead...                future she never imagined.
quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure 
out who the killer is before she becomes a victim?
 As the young assassin investigates, her search
leads her to discover a greater destiny than she
could possibly have imagined.                                 


Sarah's Review:
Sorry for the messy introduction. In this review I am going to be comparing the two books the Throne of Glass and The Selection. Afterwards I'll do a quick graph comparing the main points that I favored and also the points I disliked. This will look very similar to the I Am Number Four review except this will (I'll try to make it) side by side!


 
1). The Covers
The only thing they have in common is a girl staring at the camera and some dramatic background. Nicole and I both agree that the Throne of Glass cover is too fake-looking.  Its just too haunted in the background and completely doesn't match the book plot/theme at all. And then there's The Selection. I dislike the cover because of its... uncreative background. Maybe its just me. I do like the dress a lot and colors really shine but the people in the background... I just don't like them.  But if I had to choose, I'd have to say: The Selection.

2). The Plot
Do they sound similar or what?! They both sound like the hunger games to me. Those two are almost the same as Battle Royale and the Hunger Games. It surprised me a lot when I started reading these two. Both are contests. One is an assassins tournament and another is a cat-fight between a group of girls. Since I am the action type of reader, I have to say I like the Throne of Glass better. Its just more entertaining than The Selection. 

3). Love Triangle
Ooooooooh, its getting really similar here. So there are two main guys who like the girl and the girl has to choose one of them. This is going to start a war between Team Prince and Team Guard. I actually have to say I enjoyed this love triangle though. It actually forced me to choose a side (and usually I don't even care about the love interests). For the Throne of Glass, I like the guard better. The Selection is the opposite. The prince is a nice guy who obviously cares about her and the guard is an arrogant butthole who is her ex, but she STILL CAN'T DECIDE. ARGH! This really was enjoyable though. However, in The Selection I got really frustrated because she was acting so stupid towards the end... Throne of Glass is definitely better in my opinion. :)

4). The Main Character
I'll just say it now, Throne of Glass. Although I dislike how she is too over-powered at times and yet acts stupid in others, she's still a nice character. Celaena not stupid, most of the time. America however is just annoying. She has a "good heart" and all the other stuff, but she lacks the common sense! I don't know about you but if the main character is annoying or boring I just tend to hate the entire book. America supposedly hated being there. WELL, SHE HAD THE CHANCE TO LEAVE THE ENTIRE TIME. She stayed there because of the FOOD?! OH MY GOSH, WHYYY?!

 6). The Ending 
 I really disliked the ending for The Selection. I'm probably being biased right now though, because I was on the Prince's side and she still couldn't decide. It also left in a cliffhanger and there was still a lot of information that wasn't revealed. Like why does her best friend want to win so badly? She doesn't even like the prince. The Throne of Glass was on of my most favorite endings ever (and I'm being biased again). It left me with a smile on my face. Though there was still a lot of missing information like how did she get into the salt mines in the first place? How was she betrayed? Winner: The Throne of Glass.


7). Extras:
Actually, there isn't that much to discuss about this topic. There is one thing that I found really random in Throne Of Glass. In The Selection, everything was fine.  
  
Final Rank:
1     2     3     4     5                             1     2     3     4     5 

I may have sounded too harsh on The Selection, but I enjoyed the Throne of Glass and The Selection both equally.  Though they aren't the greatest books I've read, they are both pretty entertaining!


Which book do you guys like better? Hope you enjoyed this review!
 

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