The Selection characters

Appears from the start

A sixteen-year-old girl from Carolina province and a Five, the artists' and musicians' caste, in the kingdom of Illéa. She sings and plays piano and violin, taking paid jobs alongside her father and older brother to help feed the family, since a Five's income is irregular and her household often goes hungry. She is stubborn, sharp-tongued, and fierce about the people she loves. For two years she has been secretly involved with a boy from the caste below hers, a relationship that would disgrace both families, and she has no interest whatever in the national lottery that will send one girl from each province to compete for the crown prince's hand.

First appears in chapter 2

A Six from America's town, a servant-caste young man who works long hours to keep his widowed mother and younger siblings fed and regularly goes without food himself. He and America have met in secret in the treehouse behind her home for two years. Proud and protective, he is painfully conscious that marrying him would drop America a caste and that he can offer her nothing the palace can. He is the reason she hesitates over the Selection, and the reason she finally enters it.

Appears from the start

America's much younger sister, an irrepressibly cheerful girl who shares the family's artistic talent and adores her. She is thrilled by the Selection where America is not, and she is the person America misses most once she leaves home.

Appears from the start

The crown prince of Illéa and the only child of King Clarkson and Queen Amberly. The Selection is being held to find him a wife: thirty-five young women, one from each province, drawn by lottery from among those who apply. Most Illéans know him only from televised addresses, where he appears composed, formal, and remote.

First appears in chapter 8

A Four from Kent province and the first of the Selected to befriend America. Warm, open, and immediately popular with the public, the staff, and the other girls alike, she is widely tipped as a favorite to win. She becomes America's closest ally inside the palace.

First appears in chapter 8

A Two and a professional model, poised in front of cameras and openly determined to win. Among the other Selected she is territorial and cutting, willing to humiliate or provoke a rival to clear her path, and she treats the competition as a career move rather than a courtship.

First appears in chapter 12

One of the Selected, a Three, gracious and well-read. She is unfailingly kind to the other girls and takes seriously the idea that a princess would owe the country something, which makes her one of the few competitors America genuinely likes.

First appears in chapter 12

One of the Selected, quiet and careful, with family connections abroad that give her a value at court her reserve disguises. She rarely competes openly and says little about herself.

First appears in chapter 12

One of the Selected, cheerful and guileless, more interested in the palace's comforts and the other girls' gossip than in strategy. She is easy company and nobody's idea of a threat.

First appears in chapter 9

The king of Illéa and Maxon's father, an exacting man who runs the country and his son's Selection with the same close grip. Courteous on camera and cold away from it, he makes little effort to hide which of the girls he considers unfit for the throne.

First appears in chapter 9

The queen of Illéa, gentle and steady, who won the previous Selection herself as a Four from Honduragua province. She remembers arriving at the palace as an outsider and is quietly kind to the girls, particularly those from the lower castes.

First appears in chapter 9

The palace official who drills the Selected in etiquette, protocol, and Illéan history, briskly and without sentiment. She is exacting about posture, forms of address, and how the girls behave in front of cameras.

First appears in chapter 8

One of the three maids assigned to America at the palace, a small, nervous young woman who is easily frightened and cries readily. She becomes devoted to America, who treats her as a person rather than as furniture.