Book Review -- The Chosen One - a novel by Carol Lynch Williams

I won The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams quite a while ago. I also read it a long time ago, but I am only just getting around to posting a review. So first...a little bit about the story.


About the Book (from inside cover): 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 Ironton County 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.

My Review:

I was immediately drawn into the story from page one. Kyra's life in the closed off community is vividly told, and in fact is told so well, I found emotions absolutely bubbling to the surface. Imagine living in a community where you are not allowed to read what you want to, go where you want to without supervision and marry who you want to. Imagine not only not getting to choose who to marry, but being told you must marry when you are still no more than a child. All of these scenarios are deftly captured in Carol Lynch Williams' book with such clarity and truth. Each character good and bad are so full and fleshed out, you feel as if you are reading someone's truth.

I strongly recommend this book. It is a compelling read involving a difficult story. It pulls you in and makes you face a situation that is not pretty. The story made me uncomfortable at times and angry at others. It is hard to say that I enjoyed it, because it was a difficult story, but I walked away feeling changed somehow and hopeful.