Book Review: The Heir

“There are some things you don't learn about yourself until you let someone else into the most intimate places of your heart.” 

So, we're making some progress here about how many books I sstill have to review.  Today, I get to write a scathing review, and those are always quite fun to write, for better or for worse. So, here we are.

Remember The Selection series? If you don't, you can read that scathing review (I must add, however, that my younger sister has since realized they are trash).   But, basically it is best described as a cross between Hunger Games and the Bachelor.  But not in the exciting way that you could imagine they cross.  The other sides crossing. It's just bad.  Well, we finished it and I let out my breath, quite relieved that I didn't have to worry about this anymore.  Unfortunately, the author is now continuing the series with the main characters' daughter.  And she's marketing it as a continuation of the series, not as a spin-off.  She's calling it book four.  That means that I, as a completist, must read it.  Darn it.

It got better as the book went on. Meaning I no longer desperately want to be allowed to say "<0 .5="" br="" stars.="">
Just like network shows, Cass realized that The Bachelor worked for her, so she decided to do The Bachelorette. We asked incredulously, "Could she write a more obnoxious heroine than America Singer," and like an overly-eager teenage girl, Cass missed the sarcasm and told us, "Yes! I can do anything you want! I can be anything you want! Just like me!"

So Eadlyn was born. The most obnoxious heroine ever. Not like-ably flawed. Spitting pea soup, head spinning around, witch-with-a-b hate-able. She's not merely afraid of love. She doesn't merely have no social skills. She's hellspawn. And I have trouble feeling bad for her as she realizes this. It reads like this play that my fifth graders put on called "Beauty IS a Beast." It was cute with fifth graders. 
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And the names!  I don't even know what to say to the silliness of "Kile" and "Ahren."

Cass once again shows that she understands nothing of political science, and that she can barely world-build or character craft. And she attempts to murder everything good about feminism, and then strike the death blows by trying to act like she actually is a feminist by glorifying all of the evils of feminism. The plot reads like she's a mildly talented seven-year-old writer. If she was seven, I would encourage her passion for writing and dote over her book. But since she isn't seven, I'm going to tell her this: Please, speaking as someone who cannot not finish a series, spare me any further pain. Just stop. I rejoiced when I finished the first three. Not because it was good, but because I could stop. Then you continued. And you didn't call it a spin-off series. You called it the fourth book. So I had to continue.

I cannot understand how so many intelligent and generally good-tasted people like this series. It is awful in every sense of the word.

1 star.