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A review by sleeping_while_awake
Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth
4.0
Chosen Ones goes down as a guilty pleasure for me. I haven't read any of Roth's previous works, although I have seen the Divergent movies and giggled throughout them.
It reads on the border of new adult/young adult. I found the writing style enjoyable and it kept me hooked. The main characters are not complex enough in their emotions for the book to really stand out as adult; they do come off as one-dimensional and petulant at times.
The start of the story seems like a book in reverse. It's ten years after the defeat of the Dark One, and the group of Chosen Ones, teens at the time of the event, are returning for a grand event. It's modern day Chicago, and there's some trace amounts of magic present in the world, but only the Chosen Ones were able to wield it.
It's noted that strange disturbances are starting to happen again. The group wonders if the Dark One is returning. Then the plot takes a crazy twist and veers down a road that you didn't see coming. I can't say much without spoiling it. I wish the twist happened much earlier, as I think time was wasted setting everything up.
The main character, Sloane, is like a caricature of a hurt, bad girl. She can be annoying at times, but Roth won me over somehow. It was a nice change reading from the viewpoint of a character that didn't care about others feelings.
The character of Mox I immediately thought of as Kylo Ren/Adam Driver by the description, and as I look at reviews here I can see multiple other people picked up on that as well. For me, that's a bonus, albeit makes it more like a fanfiction type story than a real original story, but whatever, I was committed.
The relationship between Sloane and Matt. Let me tell you people, the way things went down for them, it never goes that well. That is probably the most fantasy thing in this book.
The world-building was decent. I didn't understand why the modern day Chicago didn't use any of the magic. Was it just because it was caught up in dangerous objects? I know there was some experimentation, but seems to me that some of the Chosen Ones should have been using a little on the side anyway.
The second setting the outfits and such seemed absolutely ridiculous. The diversity of our world today, how would we all just collectively say, yes we want to wear heavy, fancy robes because magic? I get annoyed when a whole world is reduced to such similarity.
Anyway, if you are looking for something really inventive and new, this isn't it. If you want a young adult type like book with a bit of romance, and no real adult emotions, tied in with an evil bad guy, this is the book. If you want something as a palate cleanser that seems a bit ridiculous, this is it.
As I said, I gave this 4 stars because I had a fun time, but this isn't ground-breaking, amazing literature.
It reads on the border of new adult/young adult. I found the writing style enjoyable and it kept me hooked. The main characters are not complex enough in their emotions for the book to really stand out as adult; they do come off as one-dimensional and petulant at times.
The start of the story seems like a book in reverse. It's ten years after the defeat of the Dark One, and the group of Chosen Ones, teens at the time of the event, are returning for a grand event. It's modern day Chicago, and there's some trace amounts of magic present in the world, but only the Chosen Ones were able to wield it.
It's noted that strange disturbances are starting to happen again. The group wonders if the Dark One is returning. Then the plot takes a crazy twist and veers down a road that you didn't see coming. I can't say much without spoiling it. I wish the twist happened much earlier, as I think time was wasted setting everything up.
The main character, Sloane, is like a caricature of a hurt, bad girl. She can be annoying at times, but Roth won me over somehow. It was a nice change reading from the viewpoint of a character that didn't care about others feelings.
The character of Mox I immediately thought of as Kylo Ren/Adam Driver by the description, and as I look at reviews here I can see multiple other people picked up on that as well. For me, that's a bonus, albeit makes it more like a fanfiction type story than a real original story, but whatever, I was committed.
The relationship between Sloane and Matt. Let me tell you people, the way things went down for them, it never goes that well. That is probably the most fantasy thing in this book.
Spoiler
Not even one real tearful, messy conversation where they try to make it work??? Someone throwing some objects? Complete lack of desperation?The world-building was decent. I didn't understand why the modern day Chicago didn't use any of the magic. Was it just because it was caught up in dangerous objects? I know there was some experimentation, but seems to me that some of the Chosen Ones should have been using a little on the side anyway.
The second setting the outfits and such seemed absolutely ridiculous. The diversity of our world today, how would we all just collectively say, yes we want to wear heavy, fancy robes because magic? I get annoyed when a whole world is reduced to such similarity.
Anyway, if you are looking for something really inventive and new, this isn't it. If you want a young adult type like book with a bit of romance, and no real adult emotions, tied in with an evil bad guy, this is the book. If you want something as a palate cleanser that seems a bit ridiculous, this is it.
As I said, I gave this 4 stars because I had a fun time, but this isn't ground-breaking, amazing literature.