Review - The Chosen One - Carol Lynch Williams

Thirteen-year-old Kyra has grown up in an isolated polygamous community without questioning her father’s three wives and her twenty brothers and sisters. Or at least 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 the boy she hopes to choose for herself instead of having a man chosen for her. But when the Prophet decrees that Kyra must marry her 60-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. 

***

This book is completely awesome. I have been hearing good things about it for a while and wasn't at all disappointed with it. I doubt this review will do justice to how good it is.

The story focuses around Kyra and her life in a religious cult called the chosen ones. She is told early into the book that she has been chosen to marry her uncle who is 60 years older than her and is horrified at the prospect. As a character you instantly warm to her. She a likeable, naive and loving character and from the instant you hear what she is up against you want to do anything to help save her from the life she is being forced into.

The thing that struck me the most is Kyra thinks all that is happening to her is her own fault as she had sinned by doing a variety of things teenagers take for granted (like reading Harry Potter).

The saddest thing in the story is Kyra's struggle as she is on the whole quite happy with her lot and she loves her family dearly and she is frightened that whatever she does will hurt them. As the story goes on it just gets worse and worse as she literally has no options and no where to go to get out of the situations she is being forced into.

A fantastic book which will leave you speechless. Not only because is it awesome also because it is true to life and highlights what some young girls living in some unsavoury religious cults must go through.