Official Review: Chosen One by Marc Richmond

[Kaia_Faye]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Chosen One" by Marc Richmond.]

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1 out of 4 stars

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Chosen One by Marc Richmond tells the story of Tidus, a college student seeking to escape his family, as he becomes embroiled in an ancient feud between mythical creatures. As he begins his first semester in college, he meets a beautiful girl named Jasmine, who begins to teach him about the five tribes that seem to be convening in the area. Tidus quickly discovers that he is the chosen one, gifted with the powers of all the tribes and responsible for creating peace between the warring groups.

I found the plot of this book genetic. The setup was quite similar to Avatar: The Last Airbender but not nearly as good. This book felt like a conglomerate of common tropes and cliches; the chosen one (obviously), a beautiful girl falls for an average guy, the main character is a loner with family, etc. Much of the plot felt very contrived, and the pacing felt quite jarring; One character announced that Tidus was the chosen one and everyone immediately accepted it, and the story frequently jumped between short scenes.

The characters were, unfortunately, bland. Tidus felt quite basic as his entire personality seemed to revolve around his belief that he was not special enough to be the chosen one. Jasmine was the average strong female character. I wish the author had spent more time developing the interests and ideals of the protagonist beyond just their reaction to the plot. I found Tidus to be a very passive character. I wished he had made more decisions for himself instead of just being swept along by the story. His and Jasmine's relationship did not feel genuine at all. Their conversations always felt strang, and I saw no chemistry between them. If felt like the author was simply telling me that they were in love, but the characters themselves did not reflect this. I do commend the author for including a diverse cast of characters.

The prose was very lackluster. It often relied on telling instead of showing. I wanted to see the emotions of the characters instead of having Tidus tell me how he felt. The story often fell victim to "white room syndrome," meaning there was so little description that the characters might have well been standing in a white room. Simple prose aside, the author did a remarkable job in editing as I did not notice a single typo.

Overall, I rate this book one out of four stars. This book was not for me. The unengaging writing and generic plot proved to be an unfortunate combination. Any development in these departments would have greatly improved this novel. I would recommend this book to who does mind simple writing and is a bigger fan of the tropes I mentioned earlier.

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Chosen One
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[HusainNecklace52]

Wow! To be honest after reading the short summary of the book I thought that - even through very generic and overdone - the overall story would at least be pleasiable. But your review clearly narrates that this isn't the case.
Thank you for your honest opinion

[difu]

What a great review. I appreciate the effort you put in in writing the review and it was lucid and straightforward. However because of the one stars rating I would most likely not read the book.

[Chigo Nwagboso]

Great review! Thanks for for honesty in your rating. I'll skip it since its not my type of book.

[NDeMeer]

Woah! I quite like the concept of mythical creatures in a young adult novel and I even quite like the Chosen One trope. But what a shame to see the author couldn't make it work. Thanks very much for your insightful review!

[AnnOgochukwu]

I thought the name of the book to be quite catchy, and I assumed it would be about a confusion as to who was the chosen one. From your review, the author didn't do a good job in this 'choosen one' story. 'Choosen One' stories are quite common, and unless the author takes care to make his/her work really interesting and distinct from other of such stories, it become just another one of those tales. It is sad that this book seems to fit the 'one of those tales' category.
A great review you've done.

[Ebby Brown]

This story seems interesting but not engaging as I thought. Thank you for your honest review.

[SamaylaM]

Oh this is such a shame! I love reading YA fantasy books but I can see this one might not be worth it. Thank you for still finishing and rating it. Your review was a job well-done!