-Review: The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams

      My summary:
The Chosen One is the story of a thirteen-year-old girl, Kyra, and her life in a polygamous religious community. The leaders of the community--"The Prophets"--have all control over her community and what they say goes. So when one Prophet has a vision from God--Kyra becoming her sixty-year-old uncle's seventh wife--everyone tells her she will have no choice. Kyra dreams of freedom but also finds it hard to choose between a new life and her family (after all, she does have 3 mothers and 20 siblings) who she is so close to.


One word: 

Wow.

I loved Kyra. It seemed to me she might have been the only one in her family with any sense--or at least that used it. You can tell some of her family feels like there's more to life than just having children and following the Prophet's every order, but everyone except Kyra is too afraid to speak up. Her family won't try to escape with her because they believe the outside world is filled with Satan--from people's blue jeans and belly shirts to their books, they truly believed if you lived in the "outside world," you were going to Hell.


Kyra sneaks off every week to check out books from the Ironton County Mobile Library On Wheels, which is of course a sin in her community, and the driver of the bus was definitely my favorite character in the book aside from Kyra. I don't want to give too much away...Ugh this is frustrating, haha, I just want everyone to read this, seriously.


This book brought up so many different emotions in me. I couldn't believe some of the things Kyra was subjected to--from physical and emotional abuse to being forced to marry her sixty-year-old kin. I think what really hit me with this book is that somewhere, there are girls like Kyra in communities just like the one in the book, right now as we speak. There were times in the book I was to the point of tears. ...I want to say so much more but again I don't want to spoil the book for anyone.


Honestly, I hadn't expected to enjoy The Chosen One as much as I did. It made me look at my life and be grateful for how I was raised and the freedom I've been blessed with. I VERY highly recommend this book, and give it 5+ stars.