Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth Book Review

Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth was hard to put down. I was initially drawn to it for a few reasons. One, Veronica Roth wrote it, and I have enjoyed her other series. Two, the plot reminded me of Divergent but for adults. It also dealt a lot more with the psychological traumas that people face after disastrous and stressful big events. 

First off, I loved that Roth chose to set this story in Chicago. She does such a great job of immersing the reader into “her city.” There were plot twists throughout the entire book. Some were impossible to see coming. The story deals a lot with the emotional and psychological trauma that happens after disasters. A lot of times the hero or heroine saves the world, and the reader is left thinking the world was peachy after the book ends and everyone lives their lives as if nothing ever happened. This novel dives into what happens and continues to happen years after these events end. On top of that, more oddities start to occur, and the Chosen Ones are called in again to try and help. Some of the characters are really flushed out and developed well. I would have liked to have seen more background with some of them. They are all flawed and realistic. I thought the magic system was fascinating and complex. I kept trying to figure out how it all fit together, which was difficult. 

The book is told in different formats such as the general narration, but also newspaper articles, top secret files, and other similar documents. I appreciated the short chapters as well.

The reason this was a 4.5 star read for me is that at times I found the parallel worlds and magic system to be confusing. I got the overall story, but I feel I would have gotten slightly more out of the story if I fully comprehended the magic system. While I liked that Sloan was a morally gray character, I found a hard time connecting with her and some of the other main characters. I enjoyed reading about them, but the relation just was not there. 

There is so much more I want to share about this book, but they are all spoilers. Just know this book was intriguing from start to finish. The magic system was complex and interesting. The characters were likable in the fact they were all so flawed. I found Chosen Ones to be a mix of Divergent and Harry Potter. I can’t say more than that, as I want to avoid spoilers. 

I ordered Chosen Ones and was halfway through reading it when I got an electronic copy from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt through NetGalley. All opinions are 100% my own. I was in no way influenced by getting a review copy.