The Chosen One: A Novel

Carol Lynch Williams

May 2009 · Sold by St. Martin's Griffin

About this ebook

Carol Lynch Willams' The Chosen One is a dazzling novel about a young teenager's rebellion from the polygamist cult that would have her become the seventh wife to her 60-year-old uncle

Thirteen-year-old Kyra has grown up in an isolated community without questioning the fact that her father has three wives and she has twenty brothers and sisters, with two more on the way. That is, without questioning them much---if you don't count her secret visits to the Mobile Library on Wheels to read forbidden books, or her meetings with Joshua, the boy she hopes to choose for herself instead of having a man chosen for her.

But when the Prophet decrees that she must marry her sixty-year-old uncle---who already has six wives---Kyra must make a desperate choice in the face of violence and her own fears of losing her family forever.


PLUS SPECIAL BONUS CONTENT: FIRST CHAPTER "SNEAK PEEK" OF CAROL LYNCH WILLIAMS'S MILES FROM ORDINARY.
"Imagine Anna Quindlen or Sue Miller turning her attention to writing a young adult novel, and you have an idea what [Williams] has done for early teen readers..." --Audrey Couloumbis, author of the Newbery Honor Book Getting Close to Baby
Thirteen-year-old Lacey wakes to a beautiful summer morning excited to begin her new job at the library, just as her mother is supposed to start work at the grocery store. Lacey hopes that her mother's ghosts have finally been laid to rest; after all, she seems so much better these days, and they really do need the money. But as the hours tick by and memories come flooding back, a day full of hope spins terrifyingly out of control....

"No one can get inside the head and heart of a 13-year-old girl better than Carol Lynch Williams, and I mean no one," said James S. Jacobs, Professor of Children's Literature at Brigham Young University, of her breakout novel, The Chosen One. Now this award-winning YA author brings us an equally gripping story of a girl who loves her mother, but must face the truth of what life with that mother means for both of them.

Ratings and reviews

As one who travels a lot, I found myself engaged in the process of audiobooks for the passage of time. Needing a new one to listen to, I opted for this story on nothing more than the basis of it being there. I knew nothing about either the author nor the subject matter. The sole information in my corner was it being a book written for young adults. Therefore, my approach was entirely cold turkey. I am certain it says something for the author when the story can be known from the first few sentences of page one. Williams never explicitly states what is to come is a tale of a contemporary polygamous community where a young girl is married off to an old man; and yet I knew. The interior dialogue Kira begins the story with says it all. The question to be resolved, which propels a reader through the book, is whether it will be a tragic tale of abuse or an inspiring story of overcoming and rising above it all. The essence of the story revolves around 13-year-old Kira. She is daughter to the third wife of her father - a good man - and sister to multiple siblings. She lives in a religious compound with a "prophet" being the leader, and the "god squad" serving as his enforcers. If one does not obey the 'prophet' the 'god' squad comes looking for you. Early on, the 'prophet' visits the trailer Kira lives in with her mother and siblings, proclaiming he has had a vision that Kira was to be the wife of her uncle, an older man in his fifties. This uncle is the older brother of her father, a domineering figure who is a brutal as he is offensive. Kira continually proclaims she will not marry the man, but inside she knows no way out of it. This main thread of the story is interspersed with Kira falling in love with an older teenage boy, Joshua, who wishes to make Kira his wife for himself, and a driver of a county bookmobile, who parks his truck nearby the compound where Kira one day walks. He permits her to borrow books, which opens a whole new world to her imagination. Prophet Childs prohibited all books, aside from the Bible, long ago, making this venture onto the mobile library forbidden fruit enticing Kira further and further away from the strict religiosity of the compound. I may never have read such a book that so draws me into its story, while repelling me by its content. My heart went to Kira; and oddly, I thought of Anne Frank and the similar circumstances these two thirteen-year-old underwent. I was furious at the men of this compound and their incessant using of the Bible to justify their own wickedness, giving these adolescent girls to these dirty old men, beating them, in the name of God, to teach them a lesson in obedience. As a believer, to hear of men using God's Word in such nefarious ways, in such repugnant ways... there are no words to describe the disgust, the revulsion, the fury at such people. It must be akin to the stories I have heard of Muslim women in Muslim countries. All one can sadly often do is shake ones head in sadness. While I believe Carol Lynch Williams has written a superb story with vivid characters and a heroine one can honestly sympathize with through all her trials, the continual disappointments and the vile abuse she endures, it often makes one want to turn away, to not see Kira be broken again. There is hope - and then there is disappointment; hope - and then disappointment. Again and again; over and over. Yet it is the character of this vibrant little girl, ensconced in a world not of her making, to carry a reader to the end.

The Chosen One is a book full of adventure. Kyra lives in a gated community that is an isolated polygamist cult. She goes against the Prophet and leaves the community once a week to visit Patrick who drives a book-mobile. Her and her family receive a visit from the Prophet Child who tells her family that he has had a vision from God and saw the Kyra will marry her 60 year old uncle who has six other wives. She has already fallen in love with another child on the compound, Joshua. He told Kyra he wants to chose her to be his only wife. When Joshua tells the prophet, the prophet beats both Joshua and Kyra. When Kyra goes back to the book-mobile Patrick asks what happened to her. She tells him and they start to drive away to the city so that she can find a better home. The prophet sends the "God Squad" to get Kyra back from the book-mobile. The book ends with a chase and a death. It is a very suspense filled story that you will not be able to put down.

The book was an okay read although the ending was lacking. Also I dont perfer the authors style of writing I feel she jumps around a lot when there is no need because it does nothing for the story.

About the author

Carol Lynch Williams is the author of young adult novels including Miles from Ordinary. The Chosen One was named one of 2010 ALA's "Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers" and "Best Books for Young Adult Readers." It also won the Whitney and the Association of Mormon Letters awards for the best young adult fiction of the year, as well as numerous other honors. Williams was the winner of the 2009 PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship. She grew up in Florida and now lives in Utah.