Book Review: "Chosen Ones" by Veronica Roth
“Chosen Ones” by Veronica Roth
Synopsis: Fifteen years ago, five ordinary teenagers were singled out by a prophecy to take down an impossibly powerful entity wreaking havoc across North America. He was known as the Dark One, and his weapon of choice—catastrophic events known as Drains—leveled cities and claimed thousands of lives. Chosen Ones, as the teens were known, gave everything they had to defeat him.
After the Dark One fell, the world went back to normal . . . for everyone but them. After all, what do you do when you’re the most famous people on Earth, your only education was in magical destruction, and your purpose in life is now fulfilled?
Of the five, Sloane has had the hardest time adjusting. Everyone else blames the PTSD—and her huge attitude problem—but really, she’s hiding secrets from them . . . secrets that keep her tied to the past and alienate her from the only four people in the world who understand her.
On the tenth anniversary of the Dark One’s defeat, something unthinkable happens: one of the Chosen Ones dies. When the others gather for the funeral, they discover the Dark One’s ultimate goal was much bigger than they, the government, or even prophecy could have foretold—bigger than the world itself.
And this time, fighting back might take more than Sloane has to give.
Rating (out of 5): 3.25
Trigger warnings: drug use, murder, suicide, megalomaniacs
Review: I know I’ve talked about this on here before, but “books about magic” are one of my favorite genres of book — I love the fantastic elements, I love the grandiosity, and I love that there’s often a huge element of good versus evil. When I first read the premise of this book, I was intrigued; we rarely see the after effects of that catastrophic battle and how people are impacted.* I hate to say it, but this book didn’t live up to the promise of the publisher’s synopsis for me, and ugh, isn’t that annoying in the best of times?
This book can easily be divided into two parts: one on Earth, one on Genetrix. To be blunt, I really enjoyed the Earth part of the book, I liked the Genetrix part, and I hated the ending of this book. Put together, that is a rating of 3.25, but it was going to be much higher until I got to the big “wrap up” battle scene and how Veronica Roth clearly set this up for a sequel.
On Earth, it’s accepted that magic has invaded, there was a prophecy, and 5 “chosen ones” were found, trained, and executed on their mission of killing the Dark One: Sloane, Matt, Esther, Albie, and Ines. The book picks up at the ten-year anniversary of the final battle, and we see where the heroes are now - one is on Instagram, three have PTSD, and one is the golden child. This book is told from Sloane’s point-of-view (spoiler: she’s one of the ones with PTSD and a shitty attitude), and her life at the time the book opens is trying to get to the bottom of their experience fighting the Dark One. As I said earlier, I really enjoyed the part of the book that took a look at the heroes post-heroic accident. Not all of them dealt with the adulation well, and it’s fascinating to see that play out.
I’m spoiler-free over here, so it’s hard to explain exactly how three of our heroes ended up in Genetrix, but they did. At this point, everything that drew me into the book — examination of past trauma, the burden of being “chosen” in a world that idolizes you, exploitation of your past — just went poof! into thin air as Matt, Sloane, and Esther were summoned to battle another big bad guy. The Earth that Veronica Roth constructed was well-rounded and realistic (yes, even with the magic — tbh, I loved the protesters), and Genetrix was flat and kind of silly. The magic they had there was based on magical breath? and siphons? Give me a magic wand and giant explosions any day.
There was a big “twist” that actually was pretty easy to predict, and I was left with more questions than answers about the timeline of how everything happened and why it did. The author was ambitious, and in my opinion, she missed the mark. The last 25 pages actually left me a little angry, as it was both a neat ending and one that was totally unsatisfying in terms of the story. I actually want someone else in my world to read this book so that I can talk to you about the ending and see if I’m being too harsh or if you’re on the same page I am.*
I guess I’m just mostly frustrated that this book didn’t meet with my expectations — the underlying idea is so good and so compelling, and it wasn’t fleshed out in a way that I found satisfying.
* I refuse to accept that “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” is canon; it’s badly written fan-fiction, imo.
**I read the reviews on Goodreads after I wrote this review, and it appears this book was polarizing.
TL;DR: A great premise that wasn’t fully realized. If you like books about adult magic, there are better ones out there.
If You Liked This, Try These:
“Ninth House” by Leigh Bardugo (my review here!)
“An Unkindness of Magicians” by Kat Howard (Shannon’s review here!)
