THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST HALF OF THE BOOK
Author: Veronica Roth
Published: 2020
Target Audience: Adults (Appropriate ages 16+)
'Chosen Ones' is a fantasy novel written for adults by American author Veronica Roth, best known for her young adult 'Divergent' series. Published in 2020, 'Chosen Ones' follows the perspective of Sloane, a woman in her late twenties who, as a child, was one of five teenagers chosen by prophecy to fight an evil entity known as the Dark One. Now, ten years after the defeat of the Dark One, Sloane and the rest of the chosen ones are trying to move on with their lives. This is difficult, however, because not only are they the most famous people on the planet, but they also still bear the physical and mental trauma from years of trying to save the world.
Matt, the group's former leader, focuses on making a positive contribution, using his fame to promote social justice causes and community outreach programs. Albie struggled for years with substance abuse before getting clean, but a spinal injury inflicted by the Dark One will always affect him. Esther is highly active on social media and building a personal brand while taking care of her ailing mother. Ines swears she's fine, yet still triple locks and booby traps her room. And Sloane would like nothing more than to live a normal life away from the spotlight; To be able to get a normal job not tied to her fame; To be able to sleep normally at night, not plagued by PTSD and nightmares that the Dark One has captured her again; To be able to love Matt as earnestly as he loves her, and not feel numb or constantly on edge.
But on the tenth anniversary of the Dark One's defeat, one of their number dies, shattering the small sense of security and normalcy in their lives. When the remaining chosen ones gather for the funeral, their lives are further upended as Sloane, Matt, and Esther are dragged through a portal to another world, another Chicago, so similar yet different to their own. One brimming with magic, but also possessing its own Dark One, with no chosen one in sight.
Sloane and the others barely survived defeating their own Dark One ten years ago. To try and do it again may very well destroy them...
Review:
The way I would sum up my feelings about this book is that it is an enjoyable read, but not a well-written book.
It has a really interesting premise, promising a deconstruction of the "chosen one/ child of prophecy" trope by exploring what would be the real-life repercussions of forcing a handful of teenagers to shoulder the burden of the earth's survival. And in Part One of this book, Roth does deliver this in an effective and engaging way. She incorporates newspaper articles and excerpts of government documents to convey the scope of the Dark One's brutal actions years ago and the lived reality of a general population impacted by mass death and destruction. Then, on a more personal level, Roth uses Sloane's recollections and her referential conversations with the other chosen ones to allude to what they individually experienced when facing the Dark One, and how it still affects them in the present day.
In Part Two, however, Sloane, Matt and Esther are dragged into a different dimension to fight against another evil entity, and it is here I feel the book loses it's momentum and main appeal. By jumping to a new world, the pace slows to a crawl as we are introduced to a whole new set of key characters and side characters, explore a different version of Chicago, discover a whole new magic system and its function in society, and learn about a new villain, new prophecy, and new potential end of the world.
Perhaps this could have worked if Roth had used these circumstances to further develop of the each chosen one protagonists, to explore the relationships they have with each other, and how being in a similar scenario to what they suffered as teenagers affects them individually and collectively now as damaged adults. Instead, one chosen one is dead, another left behind on Earth, effectively forgotten, and Matt and Esther feature less and less as the story progresses, receiving little development beyond magic lessons, and then are largely written out of Part Three. The story focuses solely on Sloane, and while Roth does a good job of integrating Sloane's past trauma and exploring how it influences her in present circumstances, this does not balance out the lack of character development for what should be the other main characters in Matt and Esther. This book essentially changes from a character-driven genre deconstruction in Part One to a plot-driven, generic defeat-the-bad-guy for Part Two and Part Three, ultimately deviating from the main appeal of the story and weakening the novel overall.
This is further exacerbated by the pacing. A third of the way into a book, the pacing should be picking up and tensions rising, not being bogged down by exposition and world building. And in a 400+ page book - after a slog of new locations and more explanations and more world building and juuuuust a sprinkling of plot - it's a bad idea to then suddenly have the final confrontation, revelations, flash backs, resolutions, and wrap up all jammed in the last 30 pages of the book. I honestly thought it was going to end on a cliffhanger and lead into a second book, because it felt like there was too much for the story to resolve in such few remaining pages. While it's definitely possible to wrap up a story in such a way, I don't think Roth has quite pulled it off in this book.
A final aspect which undermines this book is that, although it is marketed as Veronica Roth's debut into the adult fantasy market, it reads as a YA book. The characters talk and act like teenagers, despite being in their mid twenties to early thirties, and while there is violence and swearing, it is of the same intensity you would find in other teen fiction books. The one sex scene is also appropriate for teen readers, being the very PG, fade-to-black sort. It is possible to argue that the characters act in a juvenile manner because their childhoods were sacrificed to save the world - and thus they didn't go through the normal growing up experience - however, this is not communicated in the book. I think it may be more accurate to argue that Roth has not effectively transitioned from writing for teenagers to writing for adults.
Overall, Veronica Roth's 'Chosen Ones' is an enjoyable read, but not a good book. It has an interesting premise and some clever twists, but gets bogged down by too many characters, excessive world building, and a change in story type from character-driven to plot-driven. Ultimately, this is not one I would personally recommend.