Guest review by Charlie Morris
Carol Lynch Williams’ The Chosen One tells the story of Kyra, a thirteen year old girl living in an isolated, oppressive religious community in rural America.
Kyra has grown up never questioning the iron rule of ‘the Prophet’ who controls the community or why her father has three wives and she is one of twenty one brothers and sisters.
As tensions in the community mount Kyra finds fragile escape in library books borrowed and read in secret and a forbidden romance with Joshua, another teenager member of the community.
When the Prophet decrees she is to become the seventh wife of her sixty year old uncle she is forced to put not only herself but all those she cares about in danger to save herself.
The Chosen One is a powerful and compelling story about freedom and love for ones family told through the eyes of a believable character. This is an intensely gripping read and it is easy to empathise with Kyra and feel afraid for her plight as this absorbing story develops.
The Chosen One has strong parallels to real situations in contemporary America and therefore could perhaps benefit from the inclusion of some factual information to put this commanding story into a more ‘real life’ context for readers who may be new to these issues.
