Chosen Ones

The toll of a happily ever after for chosen ones- those heroes and heroines fate chooses to save the world - is not normally something readers get to see; Mockingjay is the only book that comes to mind, and most people vilified the epilogue for this very reason. Yet, to assume that such chosen ones get a happily ever after is dangerous given what authors put such characters through. For this reason, Veronica Roth's new novel, Chosen Ones, is a thoughtful look at what the lives of certain chosen ones would be like after they save the world.

For one thing, Ms. Roth does not shy away from the severe mental and physical trauma chosen ones incur in their battles to save the world. Ten years later, Sloane still struggles with severe PTSD to show more the point where it continues to impact her relationships and her ability to function. In addition, there are allusions to her fellow chosen ones' suffering, the intense therapy they sought to recover, the drugs they used to blur their memories, and their many other coping mechanisms used to be able to deal with or forget everything they saw and did while saving the world. It is a brutal portrayal of a hero, but one that fits with everything we know about psychiatry and long-term exposure to traumatic stress. Such chosen ones may provide the world with a happily ever after ending, but they certainly struggle to obtain the same type of ending themselves.

To counteract the damage, Ms. Roth also highlights the bonds forged through such combat. The five chosen ones are legitimately friends for life. They alone know what each other suffered and experienced. They alone can relate to each other. No one else has their memories or their experiences, and these are the ties that bind them together forever. Plus, even if they wanted to drift apart, they cannot do so because the world will always see them as a group. Every memorial, every anniversary will force them to come together again as the united front that defeated evil.

Ms. Roth immediately draws you into this dark story with its unusual combination of magic, astrophysics, and psychology. Sloane is one of the prickliest heroines you will meet, but she is honest in her ongoing suffering. Sloane is the type of character you want to heal because she is so broken and fragile no matter the solid facade she portrays to those closest to her. In spite of her ongoing issues though, she is one of the first ones to step up when it appears that they might not have saved the world after all. You can't help but admire someone like her, right on the edge of breaking into a million pieces but not afraid to do her duty when called to do so.

As always, Ms. Roth knows how to write and write well. From the very first page, she hooked me into the story. Chosen Ones suffers slightly from a tendency towards redundancy, especially about Sloane's height, which gets mentioned almost every chapter. Yet, it was not enough to stop me from devouring every page and wanting more. In fact, I loved it so much that I am willing to say I think it is Ms. Roth's best novel to date, and I look forward to seeing what else she has in store for Sloane and her friends in future novels. show less

Roth chooses an unpleasant but relatively effective way to introduce Sloane, the unfriendliest of five saviors of humanity (they defeated the Dark One who brought magic to Earth and slaughtered thousands): by having a misogynist journalist write about how much he wants to fuck her to take her off her high horse. The saving the world happened when they were teens, as did the associated trauma; though Sloane’s partner Matt—the leader—wants to get over it, Sloane isn’t with that program. When three of the Chosen are torn away from their Earth to another world that also needs saviors, she finds that she might not want to be the hero at all.

Here I am, standing in the shadows, hoping the popular kids don’t grab me, stick my head in the toilet, and flush.

No, I didn’t hate this book, but I also didn’t love it.

I did like the premise, with the magical forces and the Dark One hellbent on world destruction.

But here’s my problem: This is marketed as the author’s first “adult” novel. I’d place it somewhere in the gray middle of YA and adult, like the author wasn’t quite able to make the transition. The main characters are in their mid to late twenties, a fact I had to keep reminding myself of because they speak and behave like kids in their late teens. If they’d actually been teenagers, I might have appreciated the book more, though, honestly, I didn’t much show more like any of them, and I thought the attempt at diversity fell flat.

Pacing is a (very) slow build, with the first half being a whole lot of repetitive drama. At about the midway point, we enter new territory. Some of the original characters fall away and we’re introduced to new characters. For me, this is when the story gets interesting. Pacing picks up, and the new characters are more complex and their behavior more age appropriate.

I almost gave up during the lackluster first half, but the second half made it worth sticking with the story.

*I won a copy in a giveaway from the publisher.* show less

Veronica Roth's first adult novel, Chose Ones was an engaging read that was not easy to predict what was going to happen next. I liked the main character, Sloane, as she was not a typical easy-going lead. She was actually rather unapproachable, even to her friends. I liked the return to Roth's Chicago obsession and the tie-in to central Illinois. It was about 3/4 of the way through though that it really grabbed me and demanded that I finish the story, like, now. There are some interesting dilemmas with magic and vulnerability that allow undesirable things to happen. There are zombies, things blowing up, and an unapologetic anger hero or two. This is their story after the amazing saving of the world incident and how one goes on from show more there, intact and functioning, or not. I am looking forward to the next one! show less

Ten years ago Sloane was one of five teenagers who defeated the Dark One. The beginning is compelling, a sharp portrayal of the aftermath of being a chosen one, and how trauma and intense public scrutiny interfere with moving on and living an ordinary life. Then the story twists in an utterly unexpected direction. I wasn’t very invested in this development and, unlike in the first part, found the worldbuilding too infodumpy.

But I persevered and the third section pulls the narrative together. It reminded more in tone of Roth’s other books in tone, too. It didn’t fulfil the potential promised in its opening scenes but I ended up liking it more than, at one point, I’d thought I was going to.

She had lived half her life wanting only show more one thing -- to save the world -- and the other half wanting to be left alone, which was almost the same thing as wanting nothing at all. She didn't know what it was like to desire something between those two extremes. She wasn't sure she was even capable of it. show less

Sloane and her four friends - Matt, Ines, Esther, and Albie - were the Chosen Ones, and ten years ago they defeated the Dark One as teenagers. Now, Sloane is dealing with PTSD and still hasn't figured out what she wants from life. Then, she and a couple of the other Chosen Ones are dragged into a parallel universe whose Chosen One has been defeated. Does she really have to do it all over again?

It's always fun for me to see an author do something new, changing genres or audiences successfully or exploring something not in their earlier work. And I enjoyed the aspect of this that was introspective, similar to Mockingjay's opening in a way, exploring the aftereffects of being one of the teenagers who saved the world. I can't entirely put show more my finger, though, on why the book was one I only liked. Was I too distracted to get into the story or because the story wasn't working for me? I think some of it may be that, though it's told in third person, it stays close to Sloane's point of view and she keeps everyone, even the reader, at arm's length. I was more interested in the set up and cared less about the stakes. It wasn't a bad read, I enjoyed it when I was reading it and would still recommend it, but it was ultimately very putdownable. show less

Chosen Ones is a action and suspense-packed book with a unique, thrilling and captivating story. Every theme was new in this book, including the fact that there was no 'one-true-savior-of-the-world' thing. The world building was wonderful.

The book follows the story of Sloane Andrews, ten years after she and her 'chosen' friends collectively brought down the Voldermort-like 'Dark One'. But life isn't as sweet and rosy for them as one would expect. They attract all the media and public attention. Some of them still suffer from PTSD. And Sloane has some secrets of her own that alienates her from her own friends.

But when one of the 'Chosen Ones' dies, their lives turn upside-down, and it seems that the Dark One is not dead after all. They show more travel to an unimaginable place.

The Chosen Ones has the right amount of Sci-fi and Fantasy. The fact that the Chosen Ones are troubled by media, paparazzi and that some of them still suffer trauma makes the story realistic. And above all the twists were totally unforeseen.

The things that I didn't like in this book is that there were extracts, references and memorandums at the end of almost every chapter which made me forget were the last chapter ended. I think that the author wanted to explore the New Adult genre to its limit as she used the F-word a lot. Also, I felt the story was too slow-paced at some parts. show less