I'm a fan of Roth's Divergent series - loved it.  When I saw she'd written an adult book, I was intrigued.  After reading the description, I knew I wanted to read it.

Taking into account the premise of this book - the fantasy aspects, magic, chosen ones, sci-fi elements - I should have loved everything about it.  The descriptive writing flows, and I've always enjoyed the author's style.  I was on board with the different settings, the struggles the characters endured after what they'd been through and how they were still dealing with depression and PTSD.  Some plot twists also came as a surprise.  

But I struggled to get through this novel, and I think the biggest obstacles for me were pacing and Sloane being the primary focus.  With pacing, I kept feeling like I was on the verge of something big happening, but then it slowed again.  This happened several times.  I never connected with Sloane, but that connection isn't always a requirement for me.  Her backstory is tragic, and she's suffered too many losses, but she exhausted me, if that makes sense.  Mox is probably my favorite character and has an amazing backstory. 

While this one wasn't for me, I'm still glad I read The Chosen Ones and wouldn't hesitate to pick up Roth's next series.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.  Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This wasn't awful, wasn't spectacular, but it suffers from what I've come to call The Forgettable Slog. It drags a little too hard and long in the first third of the book for the more suspenseful, convoluted machinations that occur later in the "parallel universe" to make up for it. My major criticism is that it took too long to get started. Perhaps had some of the secondary characters been a tad more vibrant and less bland then I wouldn't have been so bothered by it, but there wasn't enough substance in them to turn my head. The characters themselves may be more mature in age, but not necessarily in attitude and behavior, so prepare yourself for that.

(**Addendum: Albie, Mox, and Ziva get points for likable posterity because they kept me turning the pages.)

Sloane, I grant you, is an interesting enough heroine. I liked her. I felt her pain as well rooted for her to find her footing. I'd say she was the saving grace. The story unwinds from her point of view, offering readers a perspective that is laced with past trauma, emotional scars, and black humor 10 years after she and four other co-chosens have disposed of an evil magic-doer called the Dark One. They - but especially she - are trying to come to grips with the horrors they all committed and witnessed as teenagers. It begs questions like: how do we survive it all, everything we've seen and done? how are we different now? where do we go from here? are we sure it's over? are we sure we've won?

The psychology behind this is fascinating, not to mention (theoretically) more adult in tone. Needless to say, I was excited about it. I was so looking forward to a deeper examination into how heroes/heroines cope with life AFTER the war is won, AFTER the world is saved, so I ended up being a little disappointed when the plot veered back into a Defeat The Big Bad (Again) trope after the midway point. It felt like a lot of potential was wasted there for more inner exploration. But hey, different strokes for different folks, right?

I think a lot of people will love this, while a smaller minority, like me, will come out the other end having wanted a bit more. Even so, Sloane and Mox are a fun duo and the ending is cliffhanger-y in all the best ways. It piques my curiosity enough that I haven't ruled out picking up the sequel. 2.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the digital copy!

This is labelled as being Roth's first novel aimed towards an adult audience, which I did not get the feel of at all. The characters, the plot and the general setting felt very YA-ish and probably should be sent around to get that more adult feel to it - mainly how characters think and speak to one another. It felt very teenage-like to me and not the way people closer to 30 than 20 speak or react.

The novel has three different parts, with part number one being the most interesting one and the two others not doing much for me. The overall story is about a group of five individuals who ten years previous defeated the big bad - The Dark One. We follow our main character, Sloane Andrews, deal with having the life of a hero and reflecting back on what happened to her and the others ten years ago. How do you deal with being a hero AFTER the evil is gone? What is left of you then? How do you go on? How do you find the strength to do so? Of course both Sloane and the others have lasting means of this fight they partook in and they're all trying to cope with their own problems.

These are all extremely interesting and complex questions and just following this storyline would ave made this a very good novel - with an interesting output that I haven't really explored before (meaning the following the heroes after they've put everything right). Just having these five characters work through their PTSD and other such issues would have been great.

Instead.... we get an alternative universe story with uninteresting characters and an equally uninteresting plot. It was sad to read after Part 1 left me wanting for more.

I don't know about this one.
It was ... not great.

Having read the first book, I don't really have any desire to read the rest... chances are I probably will, but it definitely left a lot to be desired.

I'm all for a fantastical story, but a zombie army? I don't know.
The story felt thrown together, like Roth pitched it to her editor on a whim, making it up as she went along, and then the editor was like
I LOVE IT. I want four chapters by tomorrow morning, and then she had to quickly rush through the story throwing anything she could think into it.
PTSD
ZOMBIES
A LESSER VERSION OF VOLDEMORT
NICE GUY/ BITCHY GIRLFRIEND

Back to Voldemort, whenever they mentioned the "dark one" I kept picturing Voldemort, with a nose, wearing a trench coat... and it just made the story weird for me.

I was a big fan of Veronica Roth’s “Divergent,” but wasn’t crazy about the following two novels in that series. Similarly, I enjoyed “Carve the Mark” but wasn’t intrigued enough by it to read the sequel. With that in mind, I approached Roth’s new novel “Chosen Ones” expecting to be entertained but wondering whether it would capture my imagination as much as “Divergent” had. “Chosen One” is certainly diverting—the world building was interesting, with ample opportunity for further exploration and developing in future books. And the main character, Sloane, was a compelling protagonist. The other characters, however, felt a little underdeveloped—and one who is introduced in the first section completely disappears for the last two sections, which felt a bit odd. The pacing of the book also felt a bit uneven, particularly in the second half, when plot developments seemed rushed to conclusions. Overall, however, I liked this book and was interested enough in the story to finish it quickly. And even though “Chosen Ones” didn’t manage to live up to “Divergent,” I’m very likely to read the next book in the series when it is released.

Thank you to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing me with an ARC of this title in return for my honest review.

I couldn’t put this book down.

I loved the premise of a story about the heroes ten years after defeating the baddie and seeing how they’re thriving - or not in many cases.

Sloane is awesome purely because she’s an MC who isn’t really all that likeable to everyone around her. She’s antagonistic, selfish, taciturn and anti-social; the best thing is, she knows it too. Sloane has no illusions that she is a hero and doesn’t let it get to her head - unlike certain others, ahem, Matt.

It also infuriated me that everyone gets mad at Sloane instead of seeing just how much she’s hurting and struggling with PTSD.

The magical systems were really interesting and I enjoyed how history and backstory were given through government files and memos rather than frequent flashbacks.

I love Mox. That’s all I have to say.

I did wonder a lot about a certain character who just disappeared. I kept expecting them to somehow pop up with some convoluted story. I’m hoping that this will be brought up and explained in the next book.

I’m really excited that there is another one because I’m not ready to say goodbye to these characters or this world just yet.

I thoroughly enjoyed Veronica Roth’s first venture into NA and I would highly recommend it if your a fan of magic, superheroes, prophecies and curmudgeonly awesome characters.

Thank you, NetGalley, the publishers and the author of this book for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

To be completely honest, I don't know how I feel about this book. The first third of it or so, I thought that there was nothing to keep me intrigued and interested in the reader more other than it being an arc that I was granted.

It wasn't until just after halfway through that I saw what Roth's writing could do, and I was more drawn into reading and finishing the story, although, I was not so captured within the world and writing that I thought I had to keep reading.

From all the characters that appear in this world, Sloane, Albie and Mox have to be my favourites. Some of the other characters, such as Matt, I found artificial and unlikeable which made the experience with reading a scene with them in it not as enjoyable. I held great sympathy for Sloane and really felt for her and Mox more than the other characters.

I like the idea of the parallel universe that Roth created between the two different worlds and the goal that Matt, Esther and Sloane must do to get back to their own. It was creative and by the end held some twists that were unexpected and shocking to read.

I wanted to love Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth, her newest adult-oriented fantasy/ sci-fi novel. To be honest, I haven't had the best luck with her stuff since Divergent, but I still wanted to give this a try because it sounds like it had a lot of potential. I did particularly enjoy the first section and meeting those title characters, especially Sloane. Sloane's easily my character to follow through the story as she has the best growth and character arc through it all. However, after that first segment everything started to slide downhill. I became less and less invested in the cast and what they were doing. I found myself starting to skim as my attention started to drift in the slower spots. It's not a bad read, it's just underwhelming considering how well it began. I doubt I'll be coming back for the sequel.

Veronica Roth has a style of writing dystopian worlds in a believable way. Having read both The Chosen Ones and The Divergent series, her imagination into what a dystopian world could be is fascinating and scary.

I really enjoyed the aspects of the setting and the world created in The Chosen Ones. It was intriguing and kept me reading even through the slower parts of the book.

This was Roth's first attempt at an adult novel, and I'm not entirely sure she pulled it off. This still FEELS like a young adult book. Partially because some of the stuff that happened in the past occurred when the characters were very young teens. A lot happening in the present was during their early twenties which also attributed to the young feeling. Perhaps the thing that made it feel the most like a YA novel was the immaturity of Sloane, our main character. She spends a lot of time doing reckless things and saying/doing whatever she feels like without regards to how it would make others feel. I was happy that she did seem to grow a bit throughout the arc of the story.

Somehow, despite the novel being pretty long, I didn't feel like we had enough interaction between characters or backstory to really care about some of them to the extent we were supposed to. Some of it...the closeness between Sloane and Albie for example, felt like we were told instead of shown. I did feel that we had a sufficient amount of backstory for Mox at least.

I loved the strong world building. The descriptions of places and explanations for some of the things happening felt realistic and believable. I loved the bits of magic and felt like it wasn't overdone. The dynamics of society as a result of the magic was well done.

I look forward to seeing more that Veronica Roth can do writing for an adult audience.

After Veronica Roth's “Divergent"-Series I had high expectations for “Chosen Ones”, which the author could definitely meet.
The book has captivated me from the first page. It's not just Veronica Roth's first novel for adults, it also starts completely different from all the dystopian novels I've read so far. The book does not start right before the fight against evil, but afterwards. The story begins 10 years after Sloane Andrews and her four friends Matt, Esther, Albie and Ines defeated the enemy. It is a story about friendship, secrets, unexpected turns and traumas. For a long time I could not empathize with a protagonist as well as with Sloane. This is mainly due to Veronica Roth's excellent writing style, but also because you now experience the story from the perspective of a heroine who actually seems to have already had her worst nightmare behind her. The book is a very clear reading recommendation and gets 5+ of 5 stars from me.

DNF @ 50%

This is the third book this month that I have to put down. Not sure if I am picking up wrong books or if that is my reading slump taking charge.

I had such high hopes for 'Chosen Ones' by Veronica Ross! The divergent trilogy is one of my favorite YA dystopians and I really was expecting some great things from this author.

But 'Chosen Ones' felt like a lot of telling and no doing. In this book we meet the four chosen ones years after they defeated the Dark One and saved the world. Each one of them deals with consequences of their victory differently.

Sloane, one of the chosen four, is struggling to live a normal life while memories of the horrible past events haunt her dreams. We are told some snippets of the past through reports, magazine excerpts, etc. As I said, there is a lot of telling and not much showing.

The concept is very interesting - magical artifacts, magic in the modern world, different dimensions and big evil force to overcome. But the way the story is told, with a lot of info dump, didn't let me get attached to the characters the way I wanted to.

I'm sure that all action will take place in the second half of the book, but I'm just not interested and invested enough to patiently wait for the story to get better.

I absolutely love Veronica Roth’s writing style. She does an excellent job building up the world in which her stories take place. I felt such a connection to each of the characters throughout the story.

This book was a very pleasant surprise, I was really unsure whether to read it but I'm so glad I did. It doesn't have the most original wordbuilding and plot but all the elements mixed up together make it special.
I think the figure of the hero and the villain, especially, are treated in such a different perspective and tell us a story that no one told us before. What happens to the heroes once the have defeated the enemy and saved the world? Are they going to live their happily ever after? The answer is no (in this book at least, it's just the incipit, no spoilers here!), they have to deal with the aftermath, with real life and their traumas. It's not everything flowers and roses and I loved this because it made everything so realistic.
I loved Sloane as protagonist, she's harsh, rough and I found so interesting seeing her trying to deal with PTSD.
Another interesting character was Mox for me, but in this case I don't want to talk much about him because I don't want to ruin the surprise here for you.
I highly suggest to give this a try because I really enjoyed it and I can't wait to know what happens in the next book (and I seriously have no idea).

What happens to the heroes AFTER they’ve save the world? What about when they’ve time to consider the parts that went wrong, the lives lost or damaged.? How traumatising is the memory of all they’ve been through.? And what happens when they realise the world is expecting them to do it all over again? Are they even prepared to try a second time?
Masterly worldbuilding combined with the complexity of plot and character development we have come to expect of Roth , mixed into parallel worlds of equal jeopardy - an absolutely convincing and deeply absorbing narrative - what more could you need! Highly recommended.

I was so excited to get to read this book! I loved it! This fantasy world was amazing. It’s one of those books that sticks with you. It was my first read by this author, and I can’t wait to read more.

I voluntarily read and reviewed a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

What I liked very much about this story is that the story os not like other books I read before. Everything is different not just the plot also the story itself. The characters are very well described and not always what they seam to be. I really liked reading it.

A really fun and interesting read. I had an enjoyable time reading this and it held my attention the entire way through that I finished it within the day!

This one gave me mixed feelings. The premise was interesting, a spin of the old fashion chosen one story with a nod to the true: the generation that started reading YA books when they were YA became, well, old (I know, I´m one of them) and is trying to reach out to books that feel YA but are more age-appropriate (and failing). So this time the characters are again our age and having to deal with our problems. And that is obviously made on purpose but, still, for me, it was a problem. They lost, with their mental health problems, their relationship discussions, and their things to pay, a lot of the magic fell that permeate this kind of book. So, for me, the first part of the story was slow going. It felt bleak and with too much reality. But then the story start to really pick up the pace and it won me, the mystery and the magic pushing the characters to the adventure that I was waiting for. I have to say that I didn´t like the end, but this probably say more about me than about the book. In the end, it was incredibly well written and is definitely worth giving it a go, especially if you are one of these people, like me, that started reading fantasy some time in your childhood and just kept going.

Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth is the first book in her The Chosen Ones series. Having just finished reading the book, I was happy about how it all ended; thinking it read very well as a standalone; however now I see it is a series, which I will be reading, but I am curious how Roth will continue.

We meet our 5 heroes, who 10 years earlier, were the Chosen Ones who as teenagers, defeated an evil enemy called the ‘Dark One’, terrorizing the world with death and destruction. They were idolized by the world, and now they gather for the 10th anniversary celebration of when they saved the world. Matt was always considered the leader, with Sloane, Albie, Esther and Ines as part of the team. Part 1 of the book revolves around how all 5 are coping, with each reacting differently. Matt and Esther enjoy the accolades and are happy in the social media world. Albie has PSTD and has a hard time, and Ines tries to keep her life private. The story centers mostly on Sloane, as she still suffers from panic attacks from when she had been captured by the Dark One, but though she comes across as angry and sarcastic, she is a tough, smart and independent badass.

Before the celebration, they government calls them in to review a possible new weapon, which will cause one of the 5 to kill himself. At the funeral ceremony, everything changes, as Matt, Esther and Sloane are pulled into another parallel universe, which is the start of Part 2. The three of them learn that they have been chosen to help this universe fight off another evil villain, and unless they find a way to kill him, they will never return home to their own universe. In this world, which is a little similar to their own, but filled with magic. The leaders of this new universe are desperate for help, and work on training them on using magical siphons to enhance their powers, to enable them to be ready when they need to fight the new Dark One.

Part 2 ups the ante, with more excitement, new characters, parallel dimension and a different enemy, who has built an army of walking dead. Whereas, Matt and Esther relish learning how to use the magic, Sloane tends to be on her own, learning everything about this world; she has never been happy, and comes across as secretive and impulsive. But when push comes to shove, she will be the one who will do anything to protect her friends, and she makes a horrifying discovery that totally changes the game. I really did like Mox, someone she meets at a museum and a bar, as well as his friend, Ziva.

In Part 3, Sloane will step up to discover the truth, and use her own unused powers to stop and fight the Dark One, as we raced to the wild climax in the last 1/3 of the book. Roth does pull a few surprise twists. Extremely exciting, intense, action filled, with us holding our breaths, as we discover who the real culprit is. I cannot tell too much more, as it would be spoilers and ruin it for you.

Chosen Ones was very well written by Veronica Roth, which had a satisfying ending. The world building in this multidimensional world was very good; as well as exciting and actually a fun read. Now that I know there is going to be another book, I look forward to see what Roth has in store for us.

A decade ago near Chicago, five teenagers defeated the otherworldly enemy known as the Dark One, whose reign of terror brought widespread destruction and death. The seemingly un-extraordinary teens—Sloane, Matt, Ines, Albie, and Esther—had been brought together by a clandestine government agency because one of them was fated to be the “Chosen One,” prophesized to save the world. With the goal achieved, humankind celebrated the victors and began to mourn their lost loved ones.

Ten years later, though the champions remain celebrities, the world has moved forward and a whole, younger generation doesn’t seem to recall the days of endless fear. But Sloane remembers. It’s impossible for her to forget when the paparazzi haunt her every step just as the Dark One still haunts her dreams. Unlike everyone else, she hasn’t moved on; she’s adrift—no direction, no goals, no purpose. On the eve of the Ten Year Celebration of Peace, a new trauma hits the Chosen: the death of one of their own. And when they gather for the funeral at the enshrined site of their triumph, they discover to their horror that the Dark One’s reign never really ended. - Goodreads

Sigh.  There is a spoiler ahead by the way.

This book had me in a fit of rage and it was all because of Sloane.

She is a selfish, self-centered, rude, ungrateful, entitled, does not acknowledge anyone's pain but her own, does not care about the lives she ruins or the consequences, AND is in a "relationship" with a Black male that she does not care to understand OR even empathize with.

Sloane is the definition of a Becky and she made me literally upset. But I am not done yet. Going to her "relationship" with her Black boyfriend, Matt. She acknowledges that he, even after defeating the Dark One with her, experiences racism. She acknowledges the fact that he uses positivity and kindness to deal with the racism. However! She can't stand him for it. She gets upset when he goes talks to teenage Black girls at an event. She starts a fight and uses the racism towards him (that came after HE came to stop her) as a reason why she reacts the way she does sometimes.

AND she isn't even in love him. They are together 10 years. She is in love with another member of the group (like just call it what it is) but he does not have any sexual advances towards her.  Matt has both but she uses Matt for sex even while she talks about how he doesn't really know her or understand her like the other dude does.

Sloane is trash. It is rare for me to hate a character but I hate her.

I understand PTSD. I understand not wanting to fight again. I understand trying to carve a piece of privacy when you are known for something you don't actually want to remember. BUT NONE OF THIS IS GROUNDS FOR YOU TO BE A SHITTY PERSON.  She isn't even a good friend. She resents her "friends" for not sitting in a dark hole with her and trying to move on with their lives the best way they can.

There is no getting past her. There is no "yeah the main character is horrible but the world building yadda yadda yadda." There is none of that.  What makes this book "different" is the fact that it tells a story of what if the chosen ones had to do it all over again. But if you really think about it is not much different then reading a book two to a series that has another battle to go through. Because that is what this book feels like is a book two in which the main character turned out to be evil. 

Overall, I tired to finish this book but when I put it down and picked it back up, I would get upset. It is a interesting read and I completely get that characters take a life of their own but Sloane made me uncomfortable and it made me think how much of this character is like the author or someone she knows. 

For the sake of Goodreads, I have this listed as a 1. But for the sake of my site, this book gets no rating.