Reviews

The Chosen: Contender Book 1 by Taran Matharu

_rain___'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I had serious ‘The Maze Runner’ vibes reading this.
We start of with knowing next to nothing about our surroundings and our main character. The book is a mystery that unfolds as you turn the pages, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Although I wish the ending wasn't as abrupt, I’ll definitely be giving the next book a try.

Highly recommend to ‘The Maze Runner’ fans.

nicolatte's review

medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

This book had so much potential, the plot was at least interesting. One thing I disliked about it was how rushed the character plots seemed. We only see good development from mc and the rest of them felt really rushed. Not to mention how unnecessary some of the scenes are. It felt like the author was trying to build a connection between a few characters but I just couldn't get into it because of how little we know about said characters. Overall, it was a little boring but it kept me interested enough to finish reading.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism

meltong's review

5.0

This book gets 5 stars because this is what got my 8 year old son to want to read more than comics. Although it had difficult words for him, the best part was I felt like he was also learning about history and dinosaurs.

I do agree with others that there was less going on, and it gets worse in the next book. If you're interested in getting into Taran Matharu's books and are not into history or dinosaurs, start with his other series.

zombieslayer's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

kendallmarie's review

• i feel like there are a lot of descriptions in this book (telling instead of showing) and it is not helping me picture anything 
• i figured out something that is hindering my reading experience: there isn’t much dialogue and that is taking away from my enjoyment 
• i just wasn’t invested into the plot or the characters so i decided to stop reading and find something else 

ashurq's review

DNF 38% - I think this was more a problem with me than with the book. The writing was actually quite good, if a little meandering--the main character had many an inner monologue. I was almost halfway through and I just didn't care what happened. There are times when a book is too mysterious for too long and that just makes me lose interest unfortunately. That was the case with this book.

rationalmind's review

4.0

The characters need some powerups. Just relying on bravery and luck makes a story a bit tedious. Sure if you were fighting mundane gangs then it would be okay, but here your opponents are supernatural. Everything else in this book is very good.

cmallerywriter's review

3.0

The audience for this book will be eager to see what comes next for sure. There is a page turning quality to this story. However there is a lot of unexplained elements to the story that seem rather disjointed. The main characters motivation and personality are left really muddied by the choices he makes. He has in his mind that he is very much a victim of his circumstances and can't seem to shake that sense thru out the story. There is no character growth, which is something I like to see in a good YA novel. The author is definitely a history buff which I can appreciate, but even those elements feel rushed and not properly explored. Maybe as the series continues there will be a further explanation of things. This first book felt like a mix of genres, sci fi, history, and adventure. There is some good ideas, but I felt it needed further development.

mieke_b's review against another edition

5.0

H 47,48,49 en 50 zijn geweldig. 4 mannen verloren in de strijd tegen de beesten, de kwalificatieronde is nog maar pas het begin, het spel begint nog maar net allemaal dankzij de krankzinnige abaddon. Het is zo wreed wat abbadon allemaal doet. Ik heb heel veel respect naar de meisjes die dit allemaal hebben overleefd. Ook super veel respect naar Quintus die doof is en dit allemaal heeft overleefd en een super leuke en vriendelijke vriend is voor Cade echt geweldig. Dit boek is echt super goed verzonnen (de vertalingen kloppen soms wel niet uit het Engels)

claudia_marcela's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0