Chosen Ones

Veronica Roth is better known for her YA work - this is her first dive into adult fantasy. She is still following the urban fantasy stylings that characterise her YA work, but taking on more mature themes. Chosen Ones is definitely a book of two halves with very contrasting styles and themes. The first half deals with what happens after a group of heroes save the world - the PTSD and the struggle to find normality. The second half takes these same heroes and asks them to save the world again.

I am going to take these to halves and discuss them separately. The first half examining the impact of what happens after you save the world was really intriguing. The subtle PTSD hints, the struggles to deal with fame and the inevitable historical revisionism that accompanies time all gave a fantastic sense of foreboding. This was wonderful high concept stuff that I have not seen properly addressed in these type of novels before.

The second half sees the heroes transported to another dimension and forced to save the world again. It provided a few interesting twists and some interesting world building, but felt a bit flat after that brilliant starting point. It all felt a bit too ‘hollywood'.

I wish this story could have kept on investigating and developing the themes it initially set out on rather than jumping to the generic actionfest it became. The second half isn't bad, but it just feels such a let down after the interesting setup that came before