trishah05's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Moderate: Torture and Suicide
unboxedjack's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Moderate: Grief, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicide, Gore, Torture, Body horror, Death, Kidnapping, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, and Panic attacks/disorders
kadtide's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Blood, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Violence, Body horror, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Suicide, and Torture
Minor: Sexism, Fire/Fire injury, and Racism
nee_cole's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Grief, Torture, Murder, Violence, Suicide, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Sexual content and Addiction
bookwookie's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Torture, Gore, and Racism
Minor: Suicide
elle_dee's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Addiction, Racism, Self harm, Alcohol, Blood, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Death, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Sexual harassment, Abandonment, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Torture
leonormsousa's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Spoiler
violence, death, mental illness (PTSD), panic attacks, emotional abuse, kidnapping, torture, murder, gore, blood, injury/injury detail, suicide, addiction, drug abuse, alcoholism, chronic pain, grief, cancerSpoiler
MC with PTSD, Black SC, Mexican-American lesbian SC, disabled SCREVIEW
Although I did enjoy the Divergent series, I have some mixed feelings towards it (especially the last book) and so I probably would have never picked up Chosen Ones was it not for Beatriz talking about it. It wasn’t even a favourite of hers but somehow, the way she talked about the book really got me invested in it. Since I’m a mood reader, being really invested means it took me about a year to buy it and then another year to finally get around to reading it 🙈. Anyway, this was just a big introduction so I can thank Beatriz for what was actually a great recommendation but also appreciate bookstagram for making me read books I probably never would.
Moving on to the book itself, I enjoyed it quite a lot: solid 4 stars for me. But even though I did enjoy it for what it was, I can’t help but think about how GOOOOOOD this book would be if, using the same starting point, it was more a sort of literary fiction. Does this make no sense? No?! Yeah, that sounds about right… But let me explain.
My absolute favourite part about this book was the characters. It’s not that the plot was not interesting but for me personally, it felt like an ok plot. But the characters… THE. CHA. RAC. TERS. I loved them and their dynamics. This book starts off as an exploration of trauma, unwanted fame and relationships, with a dash of misogyny and racism and I was living for it. Honestly, that was all I needed. And it’s not that I didn’t get it throughout the entire book; I did; it’s just that I kept wondering about what if there wasn’t another adventure or wtv for our main characters; what if we got the whole book to talk about trauma?! (Am I a masochist? Oh yes, oh yes!)
So, summarizing what I just wrote: I liked this book but it makes me slightly angry that it had so much potential to be much more than what it was but because it stuck to its fantasy genre, it didn’t. Obviously, this is not an anger directed at anyone (especially not the author, she did do a great job!), it’s more a frustration directed at the world itself.
Now that I’ve got that off my system and since this is getting quite big already, here are some short sentences with short opinions:
- very cool magic system/sci-fi world, would have been great if there was more space/time to exploit it.
- plot was slightly predictable
- liked the zombies
- would have liked to see Ines embark on the journey with the other Chosen Ones and not get left behind
- loved the approach on relationships, especially Matt-Sloane
- the Chicago depiction was pretty cool but for someone who’s not familiar with it, it got a bit confusing sometimes
- great perspective on “the chosen one” concept
- I might have a small crush on Sloane <3
And that’s it for today, folks! In general, I had a good time reading this and if there was a second book, I would definitely be reading it! Now I’m gonna go cry a bit because I can’t find fanart for these amazing characters 😥 And when I’m finished crying, I’m gonna start looking for books about trauma because apparently, that’s something I enjoy spending my time with 😝
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Kidnapping, Grief, Mental illness, and Violence
Moderate: Death, Murder, Gore, Chronic illness, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Addiction, Blood, Drug abuse, Suicide, and Torture
Minor: Cancer
sbcrra's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Grief and Murder
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Torture, Vomit, and Addiction
nutm3g's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Kidnapping, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and War
Moderate: Abandonment, Drug use, Dysphoria, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Eating disorder, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Genocide, Addiction, Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, and Drug abuse
Minor: Domestic abuse, Racism, and Religious bigotry
kbusemeyer's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Spoiler
I think there’s something about reading a selfish character, who doesn’t always make the moral choices, that’s nice to differentiate. It’s not just a morally grey villain, but having the actual MC be that was cool.I think at times it was confusing about what was going on, the main twists were clear but some of the delivery wasn’t quite as clear to me. Also pushing certain personality traits for characters a little too hard at times.
Spoiler
Nero being Koschei was not something I really saw coming. The twist that he did all of the horrible things he did in order to make people angry enough to kill him, since he was immortal, didn’t really feel like it had a build-up. Also Alodia helping him was kinda like ok too. The needle does explain why he was so interested in Sloane, though, which I probably could have guessed because that was the one distinguishing thing about Sloane from the others.Love the imperfect couple of
Spoiler
Mox and Sloane. I appreciate having a couple who is not perfect, and most would consider toxic to each other (what with both having night terrors) being together. I also thought it was interesting reading the ending and seeing how Mox was still considered “selfless” in a sense while Sloane’s magic was only considered having the intent to destroy. Interesting that the world she created was solely just her wants and desires, also that they mentioned her mom since I wouldn’t have even asked that question. Rip her and Matt’s apartment though, that did frustrate me that they never had a proper conversation where Matt could get closure.Moderate: Violence
Minor: Torture