My mind is blown. I finished reading this book and all I could think was "What could possibly come next?". Everything about this book is different, the way it is told, the worldbuilding, the characters are not at all what you would expect. I LOVED IT! It had me excited from the get go because the story does not start at the beginning, it starts in the aftermath when things are settling down and returning to normal. It makes the reader think about things like PTSD and trauma, and how we cope with events we weren't sure we would survive. I've read many books with so-called chosen ones, I've never felt for one as much as I have Sloane. This is a new book that takes a second look at the experience of a chosen one, and it is WONDERFULLY captivating.

Hey, it’s a stand alone book and not a series!!!
It’s a good read by a good author. There’s bits of news reports and redacted military documents between the chapters that help flesh the world out. The characters are believably traumatized by their experiences and react in logical fashion for who they are. My only real complaint is it was a bit of a slow start before things take off, If I could give half stars this would be a 4.5. I reserve 5 stars for the books that really wow me.

Veronica Roth proves to be much more than a dystopian young adult author with a short string of successes. I loved Roth’s follow-up work to the Divergent series, including her collection of short fiction.

Now, we have Chosen Ones, the author’s first title for an adult audience. I loved the detail, thoughtfulness, and creativity that Roth brought to a new fictional universe.

Chosen Ones is enjoyable and is hopefully a taste of more to come.

Ten years ago the Dark One stalked the Earth, tearing holes in reality and casually slaughtering thousands. Five teenagers wielding legendary objects defeated him and saved the world. Some have adapted well to post-conflict life: Esther is an influencer and Matt champions numerous worthy causes. Prickly Sloane, though, never got her PTSD under control. Her struggles to find a direction are interrupted by an inescapable call to arms. To survive a whole new set of dangers, Sloane must reawaken old skills and memories she'd hoped never to revisit. Starts slow, but each Part introduces a wild plot twist. Thanks, Netgalley.

I really liked the idea of a book that follows Chosen Ones after their work is finally over. How do you adjust to a normal life after something like that? Is there such thing as "normal" anymore? This book doesn't exactly delve into it in the way I thought it would, but I found that I didn't mind. It was interesting to see the psychological struggles of the characters when they were forced to relive familiar challenges. I really liked watching Sloane figure out what she wanted out of life and what she valued. I thought the twists/reveals were well executed and appropriately timed. The book was solid and kept me interested throughout.

It took a while for me to get into this one but once I did I really enjoyed it. The magic system is unique and a little confusing at first but it was nice to read something different than other books. The characters were dynamic and interesting. Just when I thought I had made up my mind about them they would surprise me. I definitely liked this better than Carve the Mark and I look forward to reading the next book in this series.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me an ARC to review.

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! It has been a while since I've read a book by this author, but this felt similar as well as brand new. One of the things I really enjoyed was the concept of a Chosen One after the big battle. There are so many books about Chosen Ones on a journey or going through the big fight, but rarely is there one about the struggles after. The pacing in the book is one of the only problems I really have with it. The first two parts feel slow and draggy. However, it picks up very easily in the last half of the second part. The twists in the book were wonderfully done and planned. I really enjoyed Sloane and her struggles with who she is without the Dark One and her struggle with the darkness inside of her. She felt like an antihero who was seen as a hero. I loved her character development. I would definitely recommend this book for those who like magic, fantasy, and characters you really want to root for.

Thanks to NetGalley for making an eARC copy of this book available to me.

My first book by this author, although I've been well aware of her other books for years. I give this book a big yes! Although it started a bit hum-drum for me, I continued to connect more and more with it as I moved through the book. The little excerpts from old news stories, journals, transcripts, and books make for an interesting way to fill in pieces of the backstory of the characters and the plot line.

The plot felt a bit mainstream-ish for the first third of the book, then BAM! it all gets turned around. Then again, near the end of the book BAM! another great twist.

While this book is marketed as aimed at an adult audience (Roth's earlier books have been YA), any of her YA fans should not have any trouble getting in to this book as well. And we'll all look forward to where she goes with the next book in this series.

Such a unique and exciting story. It captivated me from the first page. This unique tale has quickly become one of my new favorites.. Veronica Roth has created something that stands outside of all genres. It is a well-written, masterfully thought-out combination of sci-fi, fantasy, and many others. You can see the influence of many great authors on Roth as a fellow book reader. However, she has proven without a doubt that her creative abilities are all her own as she produces works that establish her as an excellent storyteller among the greats.

There was so much to love about this book. The premise, the world building, Albie. But it just fell flat for me as a whole. There was chapters where I couldn’t put it down and more chapters where I had to slog through.

I didn't get addicted like I had hoped, though interesting enough story. I didn't enjoy all the supplementary articles and letters but they were necessary to get an understanding of what was happening. The main character was great: she had a mind of her own and didn't apologize for it. Nice to see.

It starts off slow and kind of dense, but once the action begins, it's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. It reads as a true epic, one that makes you feel the world really has been reshaped as you read it. Would recommend.

Thanks Netgalley for the digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book! Fans of the "chosen one" trope in YA and MG novels will love this adult version! What happens when Chosen Ones grow up? They are trained as children to fight but not told how to live as normal post-war adults. Loved the premise. Loved the story. Loved the writing. You can really see and feel how Veronica Roth has grown up as a writer since the Divergent series.

Definitely will recommend all my adult-aged YA readers to add to their TBR list.

Veronica Roth is a must-buy author, clearly. Chosen Ones was fantastic, dramatic, riveting, and more. This book is Veronica at her very best.

This was an interesting take on the whole ‘chosen one’ plot. It takes place ten years after the defeat of the Dark One, and for at least the start of the book, explored with how the five Chosen Ones dealt with the aftermath of the war. Some of them handled it well, sort of, but others did not. The focus though is all told from Sloane’s point of view. It might have been interesting to hear from the others as well.

Sloane is not exactly a likable character, she is acerbic and edgy and at times down right mean to those around her. She has a really tough time and does not deal with her PTSD very well. At the start of the book she is in a relationship with Matt, the leader of the group. I never did like the two of them together, Matt was just too nice and didn’t seem to get who Sloane really was. But somehow Sloane does start to grow on you. Her outside persona is quite different from what is going on inside. She is quite tough and willing to do what it takes to make things right. We see some of this once she meets Mox and things start to make more sense to her. I really loved Mox and the relationship he developed with Sloane was wonderful, they really got each other.

Because the story is told solely from Sloane’s perspective, we don’t get to know the other characters that well. I especially would have liked to get to know Albie better. What little we get to know him, made him very interesting. Plus he was an awesome friend to Sloane, even when she maybe didn’t deserve it. Esther and Ines would also have been good people to know, although Ester might be a little self-centered, but I think that was how she coped with her life as a Chosen One.

The plot is going to be hard to talk about without spoiling. I will say that it is very fast paced once you get past the first 100 or so pages. There is a twist in the setting that I certainly didn’t see coming and it took a bit to get over the surprise. The twist of who the Dark One really was well done, although I kind of had it figured out way before it was revealed. The ending also had quite the twist, that I didn’t see coming at all. The world building was masterfully done. The magical system in the second half of the book was very different and fascinating.

While I enjoyed this book, it bothered me that it is being touted as a book for adults. There didn’t seem to be anything in this book that I haven’t seen in YA, even the violence was fairly tame compared to some I have read. The only reason I can think of is that the characters are all in their twenties, but so what? I think teens will enjoy this book just as much as her other ones, and I think the message of things not being perfect after you defeat evil is a good one for them to hear. I’m not sure where this series is going, I thought the ending was solid. But I will follow it where ever it goes. I enjoyed the characters and the world and look forward to seeing what will happen next to them.

An interesting look at how the children who are the "chosen one" cope with life after having been used as a weapon. How do you hold yourself together when you have literally seen the worst that humanity has to offer? What happens when you aren't a likeable person after all that trauma? What happens when you have to do it all over again?

Well written, quickly paced, and enjoyable.

I really wanted this book to be a successful chosen one story with a twist, but I was not convinced. This is one of those books where I think I will enjoy the sequels more than the original. I had trouble following the story because the plot moved along fairly quickly, with lots of new characters being introduced. I never believed in the villain or their intent and that made it hard to believe in a chosen one. This book did a great job of setting up a new crazy world for the next book, but the set up in this one felt clumsy and forced. I still enjoyed the world building, but wish more focus had been placed on character development and a slower timeline.

First off I loved the idea of this book. People are chosen, bad guy defeated, then what?

However, it took me a while to get into this book. The action really picked up after “the twist” but when I was finished I was wondering. How is this going to be a series? It did feel a bit more like it was geared to ya then adults.

I would definitely read the next book before deciding whether or not the series would be worth it.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

Stars: 3.5

This was a very original concept...what really happens to a hero after they have defeated evil? I think that Roth gives a really realistic depiction of how ordinary people would cope with extraordinary pressures and trauma. I have always thought that being famous would be incredibly stressful - always dealing with scrutiny, invasion of privacy, and false narratives. Each of the five heroes in this story deal with it differently, some withdrawing into anger or addiction, while others seemingly embrace it. When evil rears it's ugly head again, the heroes must take a critical look at the past, and what they think they know about themselves and each other.

It's difficult for me to put my finger on why I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. Roth does a decent job of fleshing out the characters, but I think her set up took just a little too long. I struggled to remain actively engaged and I could put this book down for days at a time without feeling compelled to pick it back up. Now that the characters and story have been established, I imagine I would enjoy a sequel far more, though this is difficult for me to say with any certainty. Considering this is accurate to how I felt when reading her Divergent series, I remain hopeful that the series will prove to be worth reading even though the way she ended it makes me uncertain. It ended with a bang, but then tapered off into different directions. If it wasn't being advertised as the first in a series, I would have assumed it was a standalone.

Although this is Roth's first "adult" fiction book, I still think it will mostly appeal to a younger demographic.

The premise here is sort of like that of Ness' Some of Us Just Live Here (which talked about the random other people who just happen to live in the same town as a "chosen one"), except here are five Chosen Ones who are trying to get on with their lives ten years after the Big Event. My first thought was that this was the second in a series - it's not, it's the first - because the characters kept talking about "before" and "what I/we did when...". Despite that initial confusion, it was easy to get into the book. Then there was the secondary confusion of who exactly this book was written for. It reads like Roth's YA books, but it's been published as an adult book; perhaps it best falls into that so-called New Adult category.

As far as the plot goes, it's pretty much standard for the genre: there is someone or, in this case, five someones, who fulfills some prophecy to rid the world of some Big Bad (to use the Buffyverse term). Many people die in the effort, the Chosen have to deal with their guilt/emotions/difficulties and there is a victory. So what if they're not cuddly and loveable? They saved the world! And Sloane fits that description to a T. And then, on the tenth anniversary of the victory, she and the other Chosens get a bit of a wake-up. If this were a stand-alone, the ending would have been perfect. As it is, it suggests a "more of the same" series.

eARC provided by publisher.