The Chosen One

13-year-old Kyra savors any time she gets alone - especially any time she can spend reading the book she keeps hidden in a scrubby olive tree. In Kyra's communicty, secular books are forbidden. And with three mothers and a passel of siblings, any alone-time is precious. Kyra belongs to The Chosen Ones, an isolated polygamist sect in the desert led by Prophet Childs. He determines who may marry and when, how the community must behave, and how a disobedient member is to be punished. All of which Kyra discovers first-hand when she is chosen as the seventh wife of one of the community Elders.

The Chosen One is an evocative, smoothly written story. The reader is transported into Kyra's world - safe from the hostile, disapproving stares of the show more outside world - but also fraught with danger for anyone daring to disobey the community's strict (and often cruel) rules. The clarity of the writing makes this book incredibly difficult to read emotionally. Kyra, who loves books and music, who has favorites among her many siblings, and who must weather the ill temper of not one, but three separate mothers is easy to relate to, and easy to root for. And this makes her story all the more heart-wrenching.

What I admired most about The Chosen One was how well Williams portrayed the difficulties facing those trying to get out. She showed the gun-toting guards, but also the inner barriers - the weakness of Kyra's family (especially with regard to 8-month-old Mariah), Kyra's fear of losing her family along with her fear of the outside world. Williams also shows a community that started off as a kinder, less strict place, but where the rules were gradually tightened to a strangle-hold by a power-hungry, sadistic leader. It was terrifying, but important, to see how many of the victims were not only too cowed to fight back themselves, but also too crippled by fear to support another's bid for freedom regardless of the horrors she faced if she remained.

Despite all of the difficulties in Kyra's path, she is a wonderful strong character, determined to have some control over her own fate. Hers is a touching and powerful story and one that deserves to be read. Just don't pick up The Chosen One if you're looking for something fluffy.

Also posted at A Hoyden's Look at Literature. show less

Who am I to define normal? In The Chosen One, protagonist Kyra grows up in the love of a large family. Her siblings are many and close in age. Her parents are not divorced and fighting over custody or child support. She has a humble, but comfortable, home. She has a much more stable and loving environment than many students who will read The Chosen One.

Is it wrong that Kyra has so many siblings? Is it wrong that she has three mothers? Is it wrong that her parents want to protect her from the ever-growing openly sexual and violent world? Does the ‘wrong’ start when she is chosen to marry her sixty-year-old uncle? Can there be any ‘right’ in a place where woman are made especially by God to be a man’s obeying playthings? Where, show more exactly, does the wrong start? I cannot stop the lingering questions much as I couldn’t stop reading The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams.

From the moment I read the opening line, I was enthralled. Williams's writing is tight, well edited and plotted to near perfection. Her economy of words boosts the climactic pace. The undertone of sexual abuse/child abuse is ever present, yet not overblown for dramatic effect. There were a few faults in the telling (easily contrived romance, unnecessary death of a supporting cast member, an ending that falls a bit too quickly), but The Chosen One is certainly a novel offering enumerable chances for discussion and dissection in any secondary classroom. Themes of personal freedom, sexism, societal norms, religion/cultism and overcoming adversity… are but a few jumping off points.

Review first published on Reading Rumpus show less

I don't think I've ever been so mad while reading a book. However, this is exactly what made me want to finish the novel! A disturbing inside look into polygamy (dare I say it-yes, cults) and the brainwashing that takes place in institutions like these.
Kyra lives in an area where daily beatings, ritualistic marriages, and incest are common ground- all in the name of God. She watches her much loved father who has 3 wives of his own move from home to home by the week, and soon learns at the age of 14 she will be marrying his brother (her uncle), who is almost 40 years her senior. Kyra struggles with this for the obvious reasons, but also the fact that there is already a boy with whom she considers herself to have fallen in love with. show more After begging and pleading with her family, her father takes it to the church where he is hopelessly denied. Kyra is left with a decision to make, and that's what makes this book difficult to put down. What is she going to do now? show less

The Chosen One is a stand-alone YA contemporary novel about Kyra, a thirteen-year-old girl who’s spent her whole life in the insular compound of a polygamist cult known as The Chosen Ones. For the most part, she’s been content with her life and hasn’t questioned it much. However, the group’s elderly Prophet somewhat recently died and after that his son stepped into the role. The new Prophet Childs is far more strict than the old Prophet. He forced all the cult members to burn every book they owned with the exception of the Bible, and members’ visits to the nearest town are now pretty rare. He also has a God Squad, brutish bullies who enforce his commands with violence. There are even whispers of them committing murder. Kyra is show more old enough to remember better days, so she doesn’t like the Prophet much. The story opens with her family preparing for an honored visit from the Prophet, during which he declares that he’s received a vision that Kyra is to become the seventh wife of Brother Hyrum, her own blood uncle who is fifty years her senior. From the moment the declaration is made, Kyra is resistant. She’s been secretly meeting with a boy named Joshua for a while. She’s fallen in love with him and was hoping that he would be the one she would marry. However, both her father’s and Joshua’s pleas to the Prophet on her behalf fall on deaf ears, eventually leading to harsh “discipline” for Joshua and Kyra and threats against her family. Throughout all of this, Kyra often likes to take walks through the desert surrounding their compound, and on one of her wanderings, she comes upon the Ironton County Mobile Library on Wheels. This bookmobile and all the wonderful stories in it become an escape from her troubled life, while showing her a window into a world she didn’t know existed. With her wedding date looming closer every day and with no other escape in sight, Kyra begins to consider leaving her beloved family behind and trying to escape, but The Chosen Ones won’t let her go easily.

Kyra is the first-person narrator and a strong, smart girl. It’s clear from the opening line where she tells her baby sister she wants to kill the Prophet that she has a major beef with the guy. As all the atrocities he’s committed allegedly in the name of God are revealed, I certainly couldn’t blame her for her animosity. She tries to be a good, obedient girl, but between her own bright mind and the things she’s learned from the reading materials in the bookmobile, she knows there’s something inherently wrong with being told to marry her own uncle. She also knows other things, too, such as the fact that there’s medical treatment that could help her mother who’s having a difficult pregnancy that’s left her sick all the time. Yet the Prophet has declared that modern medicine is of the devil and any woman who dies in childbirth is sinful. Kyra, like any girl her age, has started to notice boys and is sweet on one in particular, Joshua. He likes her, too, and they engage in a number of late-night rendezvouses in dark, quiet places around the compound where they share innocent kisses and make promises to each other that the Prophet makes impossible for them to keep. When the Prophet declares that Kyra is to marry her uncle, I admired her for fighting back even though she’s bombarded from all sides by people trying to “put her in her place” and eventually by being literally beaten down. Even though inside she’s incredibly frightened and sometimes uncertain about the course of action she’s taken, she simply doesn’t give up on forging her own destiny.

Since The Chosen One is classified as a YA novel, I’ll discuss potentially objectionable content in this paragraph. There are a handful of times that hell is used as a profanity, but no other language issues. There’s no drug or alcohol use. Although the term adultery is briefly discussed and Kyra thinks of how she can’t even stand the idea of her uncle touching her, there’s also no actual sexual content. So the most concerning things would be violence and an overarching sense of fear. There’s a feeling of suspense surrounding whether Kyra will ever be able to escape her fate, which eventually leads to some nail-biting moments that I can’t say too much about without giving away spoilers. Then there’s the violence, which overall isn’t rendered too graphically. It’s more the fear that leads to a psychological response. However, there is a scene where an infant is “disciplined” for crying in the presence of the Prophet, nearly leading to her death. There’s talk about murders that have taken place in the past, both of infants and girls, and the implication of a supporting character being killed in the story. There are other abuses, including Kyra herself being beaten, although after the first blow, it fades to black with the story taking up again afterward with the mention of all her injuries. There’s also the twisted nature of the things the cult believes and how the Prophet keeps everyone under his thumb, which can be rather disturbing. So while the thirteen-year-old age of the protagonist might draw the interest of middle-grade kids, I’m not entirely sure if they would be old enough to handle the subject matter given that this isn’t some fantasy world but one that really exists for some people. It would probably vary depending on the maturity of the child and whether they have parental or educator guidance available to help process it. That’s why I would only recommend the book for older teens who I believe would have the maturity level to handle the more realistic nature of the story.

Overall, The Chosen One was a great read. It’s by turns powerful, thought-provoking, heartbreaking, and anger-inducing. IMHO, the ability to elicit all of these emotions from the reader is the mark of good writing. Kyra is a strong, admirable heroine who eventually figures out that she must be her own hero no matter the cost. The Prophet and his God Squad made me want to jump into the story to give them a taste of their own medicine. Then there are Kyra’s family members, who drew a certain sympathy from me. Her father seems like a good man who genuinely loves his family, while her mothers are generally good people as well, particularly Kyra’s biological mother. Her siblings just try to please their parents, but I admired her sisters who share the same mother for standing up for her. On the one hand, I sometimes wanted to be angry with her parents for not doing more to protect her, but at the same time, it was obvious that deep down, they had some doubts of their own which they’d stuffed away. They’re simply a product of their upbringing, never knowing another life besides the cult compound, and they’ve had fear—fear of the Prophet, losing everything, and/or going to hell—instilled in them from a young age. So they’re stuck as well and perhaps unable to dredge up the courage Kyra has. The story is at times, tense and suspenseful, making me wonder if Kyra was going to find a way out. It was on track to receive five stars from me right up until the ending, which while hopeful, was a little too open-ended for my taste. I like everything wrapped up in a neat bow, but this one left me with many questions, which I’ll have to answer on my own in a way that will satisfy me. I begrudgingly admit that real life isn’t usually neat, so in that way, the book was sticking to it’s more realistic tone. Otherwise, it was an excellent read, my first by Carol Lynch Williams, but most certainly not my last. show less

This compelling story about Kyra, a teenage girl (not quite 14 years old) growing up in a fundamentalist, polygamous compound, is a very fast read. When Kyra, one of 20 children between her father and his three wives, is told by her religious community's prophet that she has been "chosen" to become her 60-year-old uncle's sixth wife, she decides to fight back against the system she is no longer sure she believes in. Buoyed by her encounters with the outside world through secret visits to a mobile library, Kyra is one of the few people in her sect to ever take the very dangerous step of standing up to the prophet and his self-titled apostles.

My only complaint about this book is that I thought it ended rather abruptly, and I would have show more liked to read more about the consequences of Kyra's brave decision. show less

This was a random library pick. I was immediately attached to the character of Kyra. Though it was a little drawn out in parts, I was into the story. I hesitate to say I "enjoyed" it, like The Room it is hard to use a work like that with such a disturbing topic. But, it kept me interested and pulling for Kyra right to the end.

I do wish the author would have said more about Patrick at the end. I was still hoping they might find him alive in the end, maybe left for dead. And, I was hoping Joshua might have been there waiting for her somewhere before the end...I'm a sucker for a happy ending.

One of the most emotionally wrenching and powerful books I've read in a long while. So much suspense, pain, and horror, and in the end, a little bit of hope. Incredibly done.

Kyra lives within an isolated polygamist sect in the desert, among her many beloved brothers and sisters, and her kind father and his three wives. Kyra doesn't mind her life much; she cares deeply for her family and tries her hardest to be obedient to God. But sometimes, it's too much. Things add up, weighing Kyra down from within. Sins in the eyes of the cruel Prophet that leads the sect.

Kyra reads forbidden novels from the area's bookmobile. She thinks hateful thoughts about the Prophet and his merciless squad of religious enforcers. She sneaks out at night to show more meet Joshua, the boy she loves and wants to choose for herself. She dreams about running away.

And when the Prophet decrees that it is God's will that Kyra become her uncle's seventh wife, she knows it is the final straw. Everything in her rebels against it, and with it, everything that the Chosen Ones stand for.

Fighting a wrenching internal battle, Kyra must choose between she has been taught and what she feels in her heart, her love for her family or her hatred for what her community does.

Suspenseful, heartbreaking, and terrifyingly real, this novel brings vividly to life the story of one girl within what could be a very real setting. It's not long, and the style is quick, simple, and filled to the brim with emotion. It's easy to believe Kyra's narrative voice, and she carries the story with utterly realistic fear, horror, grief, strength, and joy. Other characters, while described quickly, are fully their own people, and you come to easily love or hate them. Many of the scenes touched me personally, especially the scenes involving books. And the emotions really did get to me; there were scenes where I wanted to hug the characters, wanted to laugh or cry with them; some made me so furious I wanted to punch something. A few times I held my breath worrying for them.

A beautiful, emotional-rollercoaster book, and a very well done portrait into a lifestyle few authors would probably choose to broach. I highly recommend it. show less