Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me this copy, in exchange for an honest review.

Well... heck!

Here’s the thing: I love a slow burn. Really, I do! But this one... mannnnn, I was bored!! For one thing, I couldn’t connect with any of the characters. Actually, it wasn’t even that—I just didn’t like any of them. Sloane is the one we follow from the get-go. We get no real character development out of the four other “Chosen Ones”. Matt is too perfect, Esther too... Esther, Albie too quiet, and Ines too absent. So, pretty much the entire novel is the Sloane show. And, ya know, I usually dig unlikable protagonists, but she was irritating. The only character I tolerated was Albie (and, further on, someone new), but still...

These five “Chosen Ones” are supposed to be around 30-years-old, but the way they talk is pretty juvenile. It’s all angst angst angst all the time. And I get it: PTSD and recovery, but why do they sound like vulgar teens when they’re supposed to be my age? I don’t know anyone in their thirties that acts or sounds like this. There was literally nothing that made me want to keep reading. You could’ve told me this was a YA novel, and I would’ve believed you (aside from the occasional violence and some sexual language).

The chapters are separated by transitional “memorandums”, emails, news articles, and even poetry, which I honestly hard-skimmed or skipped entirely whenever they came up. A few were insightful, but many were derivative, boring, and/or unnecessary (in my honest opinion). They did nothing for me, but distract and detract.

Part Two takes on such a left-field narrative shift, that I personally don’t think worked in the story’s favor overall. It was too much for me, and almost my breaking point. And yet, I pushed through. 70% in is when the story really starts to take off (and I agree with many other reviewers that the last 20% is the best part of the book), so, that’s the only thing that saved this from being a full one-star read. I am somewhat glad I didn’t DNF The Chosen Ones, at least, but I don’t think I’ll be devoting any of my time to the next installment.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this book!

I absolutely loved every second of this book! Most stories don't address what happens after a "chosen one" defeats their "dark lord" and has to go on living once their job is done. This book addresses the pain of loss and the challenges that come after saving the world, and it does so in such an engaging way that when I wasn't reading the book I couldn't stop thinking about it! Sloan's character is almost refreshing in her angst and honesty and I wouldn't be opposed at all to reading more about her. I would absolutely recommend giving this book a try!

I was really excited for the premise of this story. The tale is told ten years after a group of superhero teens save the world by vanquishing the villain, the Dark One. Rather than a typical superhero story, we see the aftermath for the kids (now in their twenties) haunted by their experiences, badgered by fame, and suddenly thrust back into a dangerous situation. Sloane is really the main character of the story, and she is a rough, sarcastic, damaged protagonist who provides a darker element and view of superheroes.

Chosen Ones had a darker tone and more realistic depth to a superhero story, which I appreciated. It showed that those who risk their lives experience PTSD and emotional baggage, it is not all happily ever after. I also liked the science fiction aspect (no spoilers:) that provided a bit of a twist and added a lot more possibilities to the story.

I struggled through this novel at many parts. The writing was well done, the magic system new and unique, but I found myself forgetting parts of the story. After finishing the novel, setting it down, and marinating on what I just read, it came down to three realizations as what,personally, was lacking in this novel to me. 1) There wasn’t enough action. For a superhero book I wanted more, unstoppable, movement. 2) Most of the conflicts were personal/relationship issues that started to bore me. 3) The only character I really liked and wanted to read more about didn’t appear until the later half of the novel and was hardly in it. Sloane was the only one who had good development, who I could understand; yet, I found her annoying and disliked her lack of communication skills with others.

I am curious for a prequel to the Chosen Ones, describing what really did go down for the superhero teens when they became chosen and thrust into the life that leads to this novel. I can definitely see others enjoying this, I just wanted a bit less of somethings and a bit more of others.

Thank you to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and NetGalley for a copy of this book in return for a honest review.

I really wanted to like this book and I did enjoy it until they get brought into an alternate dimension.

This just shows Roth still has it! An interesting blend of genres proved to be a couldn’t stop reading until 2am kind of book!

I have read Roth's other work and enjoyed her fast paced writing and twists and turns, Chosen Ones has the same Roth style and if you enjoyed her previous work you will like this more adult read.

I think it is best to go in to this book knowing no more than the blurb has told you - this is Roth's idea of what happens to the "Chosen Ones" when the battle is done and life carries on.

A great read to get lost in on a rainy weekend with a blanket and a warm drink.

I had such high hopes for this because it was so hyped but.... This book was not for me.

It starts 10 years after all the action happen and they saved the world. Now the main character Sloane (spelled different but all I imagine is Dr Sloan) just wants to fade in the back grown and be left alone.
The whole book dances around what she's done and been thru. Till she final tells us a little bit ...not really enough to feel anything for her.

I didn't enjoy the flow. Was predictable. And just felt like a bunch of ideas plucked from other books.
The book finally got acceptable when Micah comes in the picture. I would much rather this book be about him.

Another note I'm not really sure what made this an "Adult" book? Was it the cursing? Because there wasn't any gruesome killing or detailed sex scenes

**This review will appear on my blog on June 12, at 7:00 am EST. The link provided will lead to the post at that time.

When I heard that Veronica Roth was publishing a new book, it piqued my interest a little but I was pretty wary of her after the Carve the Mark debacle (https://medium.com/@ameemabackwards/carve-the-mark-a-further-reflection-25e2f29ab975). I hadn’t read any of her books since the underwhelming finale to the Divergent series (really, it should have been a stand-alone), although I had heard her speak at her keynote address a few years prior at YallFest (https://yallfest.org/). Chosen Ones is her first foray into adult fiction, and is about five “Chosen Ones”—children chosen by prophecy to defeat a great evil—ten years after defeating their archnemesis.

The marketing for this book really pushes the idea that Chosen Ones is primarily about the aftereffects of being a teenage YA protagonist, and the mental health issues and trauma that that entails. And in fact, that is what the first ~third of the book is about. We see that our main character, Sloane, has lasting PTSD effects from a period of time when she was held captive by the Dark One, how she doesn’t mesh well with the other four Chosen Ones, and how she doesn’t take well to fame. It’s pretty slow, but luckily the action starts to pick up in the second third of the book, with the introduction of new situations, new enemies, new allies, and most importantly: a new archnemesis.

Although this book was enjoyable enough, I think it had a lot of issues that detracted from my reading experience. As I mentioned, the first section of the big is really slow, and even once the action picks up we are held down by unimportant scenes with very little action. The magic learning sessions are particularly dull. Also, you get dragged down with the descriptions of magic. Although it is a very interesting magic system, it’s confusing, and when Roth describes it in detail, it’s downright boring. Essentially, magic users use magical tools called “siphons,” which amplify their magic, which they control by humming or singing a certain pitch. On top of that, the siphons are attached to the body and have different effects and power levels depending on the location on the body. Very unique and interesting, but by the end of the book it still didn’t make a ton of sense to me and all of the sections that described it were mind-numbing.

I also didn’t feel a lot of connection to the characters. Our narrator, Sloane, is very detached and it makes it hard to create a connection with her, and because she is detached from all of the other characters, we don’t get to know them, either. There is a character death that serves as the catalyst for the events in the later portion of the book, but we don’t get to know the character well enough to be affected by that death, so it’s hard to relate to Sloane in that moment.

Additionally, Roth goes out of her way to make Sloane an unlikeable character, to the detriment of her character relationships. Sloane’s relationships with the other characters aren’t believable, and feel shallow. She talks all the time about how the others don’t understand her, or she can’t talk to them and relate to them, but they have been friends for over ten years, she’s been dating and living with one of them for a significant portion of those ten years, and most importantly, she hasn’t made any other friends in those ten years. Due to their status as Chosen Ones, it’s a very insular group and they don’t talk to many people outside of the group, so I wasn’t really convinced by the idea that they don’t understand Sloane and don’t get her. Obviously you can’t understand another person completely, but the lack of interpersonal relationships despite the supposed very close relationship is laughable—particularly between Matt and Sloane.

Because of the controversy over Carve the Mark, I wanted to discuss race in Chosen Ones and Roth’s approach to race. Please bear in mind that I am white, so I don’t understand racism on a level that BIPOC do, and I encourage you to seek out BIPOC voices about race issues. With that disclaimer aside, I feel like Roth was trying to push woke points into this novel, and it felt very performative. Towards the beginning of the book, she makes a point to say that three of the Chosen Ones—Matt, Esther, and Ines—are people of color, and in particular points out that Matt is black. Matt is the leader of the team, and is officially the Chosen One, since he was the one who killed the Dark One in the end, and Roth makes a point to talk about how Matt deals with micro-aggressions and racism, and how he had dreadlocks in his hair at one point. Towards the beginning of the book, Sloane has the following conversation with a reporter (told from the reporter’s point of view):

“What do you think about the All Chosen movement that’s popped up in the last few years?” I ask. The All Chosen movement is a small but vocal group that advocates for emphasizing the role the other four Chosen Ones played in the defeat of the Dark One rather than attributing the victory primarily to Matthew Weeks.

Sloane doesn’t mince words. “I think it’s racist.”

“Some of them say that elevating Matt over the rest of you is sexist,” I point out.

“What’s sexist is ignoring what I say and claiming I just don’t know any better,” she replies. “I think Matt’s the real Chosen One. I’ve said so multiple times. Don’t pretend you’re doing me a favor by knocking him down.”

And that would be a great sentiment, if Roth followed through on it. Unfortunately, she pretty much negates this whole idea by the end of the book, which I won’t go into here so as not to spoil you… From the second I read this passage, though, I had a feeling she was going to. Matt’s race also never comes up unless it’s talking specifically about how he’s effected by racism. And it doesn’t affect him extensively…just for a sentence or two. As for Ines and Esther, Ines is revealed towards the end of the book to be Mexican, and except for one throwaway sentence about how she also experiences racism, Esther’s ethnicity is never spoken about again. For reference, this is that line:

[Matt’s] own smile was a weapon against a gentler and more insidious form of racism, the kind that made people follow him through retail stores before realizing who he was or assume he had grown up in a rough neighborhood instead of on the Upper east Side or fixated on Sloane and Albie saving the world as if Matt, Esther, and Ines had nothing to do with it.

And then we didn’t talk about Esther’s race again. As an extra plus, Ines is mentioned, very briefly, as identifying as a lesbian in the first chapter. Guess what? Never gets brought up again. I’d like to be able to commend Roth for making an effort to learn from her grave missteps in Carve the Mark, but come on—this is, if not the bare minimum, simply performative, and a huge letdown.

This obviously sounds like a really negative review, but I didn’t hate the book. At the end, I was simply ambivalent about it. I had a good enough time while reading it, but it’s forgettable and didn’t blow me away. There were a lot of fundamental issues with it that didn’t necessarily ruin the story, but impacted my overall enjoyment. If you’re a fan of New Adult, or particularly like the epilogues that show how YA teens haven’t healed after their years of trauma (got very strong last-book-of-Animorphs vibe from this), you might enjoy it more, but for me, it was a solid middle-of-the-road book.

I came into Chosen Ones with pretty low expectations based on some of the reviews I had seen so I was actually pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it. While it definitely wasn’t in the same caliber as Divergent, I had a difficult time putting it down. Chosen Ones features five heroes that were brought together as children and trained to fight The Dark One. The Dark One has been using magic to create drains that can kill thousands at a time. There is a prophecy that the government has been using to find candidates that might potentially be the Chosen One.

The main protagonist, Sloane Andrews was discovered as a young teen and trained with the other Chosen Ones under “Bert”. The team went up against The Dark One several times before defeating him and subsequently became famous for saving the world. Following the 10th anniversary of the great defeat, the five gather together to honor the lives lost at the hand of the Dark One. Some of them have been able to move forward more effectively than the others and Sloane has always struggled with the darkness surrounding their defeat. Shockingly, one of them dies soon after bringing them together again for the Memorial. Is this a new manifestation of the Dark One or something else entirely? I really got hooked on the mystery element of this book. I thought Veronica Roth did an awesome job with the intricate world building.

Overall, I really enjoyed the use of magic in this book and thought there were some clever twists. There is heavy use of flashbacks so that may bother you if it’s not your thing. I was surprised there was no cliffhanger at the end and am curious to see where the next installment will lead.

As excited as I was about the Chosen Ones, it didn’t deliver to my expectations. Maybe it was just my nostalgic feelings about the Divergent series that made me want to love it.
While the world is enticing, and it had a promising premise, I could not connect with the main character at all, which made it a difficult read.
I found the plot twists interesting, but they become too obvious before they happened, which increased my frustration with the lead character, as she seemed to realise things only too late.
The book became increasingly engaging at the end, and I finally started to root for the characters in the last 30% or so. Chosen Ones had an interesting ending, which opens us great possibilities for the second book.

This had so much potential but Sloane is really unlikeable. Also, the tall thing was annoying. I get it. I do not think it needs to be mentioned every ten pages. I will be on board for the next book in the series, but this was just ok. I had high expectations. That is on me.

Chosen Ones keeps the reader on edge with its many plots and twists. The author brings us to a modern day Chicago where a typical villain wants to destroy the world, if not for 5 youths that fulfill the prophecy and killing this monster. The story happens many years after and gives a glimpse of how this traumatic experience affected the heroes. And of course, how will they react if the monster comes back?

So the emotional aspect of the characters are interesting and could have been developed more. Sloan, the main character, moody, introvert, rebellious and quite unhappy goes through her feelings and ends up questioning her values, her strengths and her relationship with her friends.

I was not a fan of the chapters written as books or press releases. Even though they were important to the story, they distracted from the main plot. And many parts and characters would have benefited from longer development, like the human emotions expressed by Sloan and all her friends.

Through it all, it took me a while to get into it but the fast pacing of the ending made me enjoy it.

I had very high expectations for this book, but while it mostly delivered, it was only that -- mostly.

The beginning was fascinating - how do kids (because they were kids at the time) cope with being "the chosen ones" when the big bag villain is suddenly overcome? How would they fit in in a post-war-ridden world? It's a concept that I haven't seen explored in books before, and one I would have loved to see expanded upon. I was also interested in seeing what all the research Sloane was doing would finally amount to.

Unfortunately, it seemed as if Veronica Roth changed her mind after the first few chapters, and instead of following up on the threads and issues created there, she instead added the presence of a parallel universe where the chosen ones could become "Chosen" all over again... thus returning to a much more familiar and traditional narrative. It was still worth reading, to be sure, but not nearly as innovative as I had originally assumed it would be.

I also felt like some threads were left hanging - or glossed over at least - but I do recognize that this is supposed to be the first in a series, so those threads may have been left on purpose to be picked up in the sequels.

Chosen Ones shows the range of author Veronica Roth. Having no prior knowledge of this author one would never know this was the same author who created the Divergent series. The plot, characters, and antagonists are all unique in their own way. I found the main character's point of view an interesting choice considering she is not very amenable to anyone but her co-characters and fellow Chosen.

I thoroughly enjoyed the plot basis relying heavily on the concept of string theory and the multiverse. It is a topic of greater and greater significance in recent decades. This is significant because it allows it to feel closer to reality and possibility than science fiction. I had two issues with this book that resulted in my rating being so low. One of them actually grated on my nerves throughout the entire book.

The first is ARIS. ARIS is the acronym which represents the Agency for the Research and Investigation of the Supranormal. This is a fairly significant entity in the book as it is in charge of overseeing, funding and preparing the Chosen for their mission. It is also a name that comes up frequently as it heads the pages from which Sloane (and we) read accounts from various Chosen operations. The issue I have is that this title is reversed throughout the book. Sometimes it is "Agency for the Research and Investigation of the Supranormal," or ARIS; and others it is "Agency for the Investigation and Research of the Supranormal," which would be AIRS not ARIS.

The second and less meticulous of my issues is with the ending. The book felt well paced giving just enough and holding just enough back to create the suspense needed to bond reader and character. However, it felt as though the book is moving along swimmingly and then, uh oh, it is like the book realized it only has so many pages left to go so it just quickly wraps everything up and calls it "the end." I was genuinely wondering towards the end if it was going to turn into a sequel situation because, I had realized, the big climax that needs to occur for the book to reach its end seemed a ways off. This bothered me because I felt that, after everything the characters had been through and all that remained after it did not do the rest of the book justice to end so suddenly. It felt like a trick, like it was too easy.

I thought this was a really unique story and I got quickly sucked into the story. I really enjoyed the character development but I'm hoping it's a stand-alone story.

A fan of Roth's YA Fantasy duology, I was excited to read her first foray into adult SF/F, and I was not disappointed! I loved the darker tone of this first book. To begin, it has an interesting premise - starting after the heroes have saved the world, and dealing with the emotional fallout of the visible and unseen scars the chosen ones are left with. I also found Sloane to be a sympathetic and engaging character to follow. I was always rooting for her, and was on the edge of my seat the whole way through the book. There's lots of fun twists in this book, some were a bit predictable, but there are so many unraveling mysteries spread throughout the book that the tension and drama stayed high throughout the entire book. I don't really any complaints, I really enjoyed reading this book, and I can't wait to see more of this world and more of these characters!

Sloane, Albie, Matt, Ester and Ines are the chosen ones. Due to a prophesy, that signals the end of the world, they were searched for throughout the world and brought together to kill the Dark One who was wrecking havoc throughout Earth. After pain, hardship and loss, they succeed. They continue to remain friends, event though they live in different areas. Sloane and Matt are a couple and live together. Albie and Ines, are not a couple but also live together, and Ester lives on her own. They get together regularly, forever bonded by what they went through.

They come together for the ten year anniversary of the death of the Dark One and the restoration of peace on earth. A few days later, unable to deal with the pain on what they went through any longer, one of them dies. Thus they find themselves together again at his funeral, and soon they learn that they only knew the half of what they were fighting years ago, and they are on a collision course that will forever change their world.... if they survive.

I love Veronica Roth's creative way of putting a story together, and the Chosen One was no disappointment in regard to her creative story telling. She takes the reader on a sci-fi, fantasty, thriller ride of a lifetime. While at times I had a little bit of trouble following the story, it all eventually made sense and regardless, I could not stop reading. Interspersing the tale with views from the past and information written in the past, in addition to the unfolding story in front of the reader, the story builds upon itself, revealing new twists and turns as it goes along, until you get to the surprising conclusion. It seems like there may even be space for some kind of sequel.

If you enjoyed the Divergent trilogy, you will need to pick up this book!

I am so greatful to Netgalley and John Joseph Adams/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for giving me the opportunity to read this novel in exchange for my honest review.

I really didn't like the matt character, he seemed really full of himself and I felt like he was always looking down on sloane. I Would have preferred it if she had been with albie instead they seemed to understand each other. I didn't enjoy reading the documents and writings that were after the chapters, i didn't feel like it added anything to the story and it felt like it slowed down the story. I really liked the mox character and was glad when he and Sloane got together. I also really liked the idea of parallel universes.

While I absolutely LOVE the concept of this book, something never quite clicked for me, and I just can't tell if it's me, the book, or quarantine.

Let's start with the positives - the concept and the characters. The idea of picking up the story AFTER the big bad is defeated is original and absolutely genius; I don't know why we haven't seen it before, but I'm so glad we finally did. Sloane, Max, and the other "Chosen Ones" are all distinguishable, diverse, and so, so believable as real people. Veronica Roth really does her research, too, and it makes the setting come to life around our characters and story.

As to the negative, I felt like I was waiting for the story to start - then it did - but then suddenly we were back to waiting until it started again in the last few pages. I don't mind a preamble, but when it's followed with a cliffhanger, it makes me wish we'd foregone preamble in favour of an ending. Though I recognise they're popular, cliffhangers frustrate me; I'll read any number of sequels without being manipulated into doing it just to find out what happened.

That sounds harsher than it should - all in all this is definitely a good book, and there's plenty of other glowing reviews that back me up on that. My frustrations were minor, and all in all I think it's just wrong time, wrong reader. I am nevertheless grateful for the opportunity to review this book.

Sci-fi is a very new genre for me. Maybe that is the reason why it took me so long to finish this book. Even though the book had a nice plot the pace, for me, was not it. But I'm still looking forward to reading the sequel as I want to see where the sorry takes us exactly.