The Chosen One

From the back of the box: 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. 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. When I received this box in the mail with the five CDs inside, I thought if nothing else, it would help pass some windshield time, while I was behind the wheel in traffic. However, as the story of Kyra, the little girl growing up in a polygamist family unfolded, I found myself more and more interested in finding out what would happen next. *** This is a story written for young adults, but I enjoyed it as a not-so-young adult and plan to pass it on to a few younger people that I know. When the story was finished, I found myself wanting to know more, wanting the story to continue, and I just sat there in my car, in my driveway, listening to the dead silence of the completed CD. Then an interview started between the author, Carol Lynch Williams and Dr. Michael Tunnell. I listened to the whole interview there in my driveway, which I found very interesting as well. There are probably going to be a number of parents and teachers who think that the subject matters presented in this book are too mature for young adults. I happen to disagree with these parents and agree with the author, Carol Lynch Williams, when she said in her interview that we "shouldn't pull any punches with older kids." They happen to be a lot smarter than we think, anyway. Also, there is no better way to get a kid to read than to give them material to read that covers things, ideas, places, and characters that are new, exciting, scary, and contain places that they've never seen or heard of, or like in this case...lifestyles that are so odd, controversial, and precarious. Isn't that what we adults like to read, too? To make the whole story even better...this audio version is read by Jenna Lamia, who does an excellent job; I mean she gets Kyra's voice and personality spot on! Highly recommended as a young adult novel.

Thirteen-year-old Kyra has grown up surrounded by a large, loving family, with sisters who are her best friends and parents who are always available to her. In Kyra's case, however, her family consists of a father, three mothers and 20 siblings. She lives in an isolated community of "Chosen," who deliberately shun the outside world and live a polygamous lifestyle. For much of her life, Kyra has accepted her community unquestioningly. But things are starting to change as she approaches the age where she will be expected to become someone's wife. In fact, when she is chosen by her own uncle to be his seventh wife, Kyra's mothers, father and sister think they understand her revulsion and fear, but they have no idea of the secrets that live in her heart. Unknown to anyone in her family, Kyra has fallen in love with Joshua, a boy near her own age, who wants to choose Kyra --- and be chosen by her. In recent years, however, such love matches have been all but impossible, as all the old men like Uncle Hiram have their pick of all the young girls like Kyra. Confessing their feelings to the community's leadership could put both their lives in danger. Kyra is determined not to accept her fate unquestioningly. Her illicit trips to the mobile library van, and her befriending of the kindly librarian, have opened her eyes to a different world beyond her compound's walls, one that is full of magic, wonder and freedom, not just sin and depravity the way her elders would have her believe. Does Kyra have the courage to make a life for herself outside the only world she has ever known? Polygamous sects have been much in the media of late, ranging from news stories of ill-fated raids at polygamous compounds to the tragicomic depiction of polygamous life in the HBO show "Big Love." In THE CHOSEN ONE, however, Carol Lynch Williams reaches far beyond parody or satire, instead vividly imagining the inner life of one very intelligent young woman whose mind and body are trapped in a system far bigger than she is. Kyra is a fully realized character, both a product of her environment and a determined individualist, valuing books, reading and music as a way to cope with her limited future. Williams also realistically portrays Kyra's love for her family, which is clearly passionate and authentic, despite the fact that her family structure bears little or no resemblance to most readers'. She soon realizes that it will be impossible to reconcile her desire for freedom with her dedication to her family. Watching her try to negotiate this choice, readers will be rooting for this compelling, unusual, thoroughly human character to come out on the other side --- whichever side that is --- happy and whole. THE CHOSEN ONE is an important, heart-wrenching book, one whose nuanced examination of an unusual inhabitant of a little-known society will not be soon forgotten. --- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

When I opened this first person account by a thirteen year old named Kyra, I didn't think much was wrong with her rather constrained life. Then I realized it was set in present day America, not a century ago! Kyra is one of The Chosen Ones, a group run by a mysterious Prophet and his Apostles. At thirteen, Kyra is the eldest daughter of a polygamist with three wives and a twenty children, aged from seventeen to eight months. She longs to leave the hot, dusty and hopeless compound where she and her family are living but she can find no way to get out. The compound is in the desert, far from town, and the only contact Kyra has with the outside world is when she sneaks off to the Mobile Library on Wheels, where she reads books. Books bring her to a world outside the Compound, and make her long for a place where she can live and think for herself. One evening, The Prophet and some of the Apostles come to visit the squalid trailers reserved for those families who aren't them. This time, they have come to visit Kyra and her family, a visit they seem to dread. Kyra's father, Richard has hopes that he will finally be chosen as an Apostle, an honor which seems to have been denied him for a long time. His wives pray that this will be so, because they would be allowed to live in a house instead of trailers, and perhaps Kyra's mother would survive her current pregnancy. But the news could not be less welcome: thirteen year old Kyra has been "chosen" to be the seventh wife of her uncle, Hyrum, who is at least sixty. She wants to refuse, to run away, to be with Joshua, a boy upon whom she has a crush. But Women and children are less than nothing to The Chosen Ones, as they exist only to serve men. The tiniest resistance is met with terrible physical punishment and death is a common enough punishment that no one even thinks much about it any more. Even infants are not spared, we find out, when eight month old Mariah is nearly drowned for the crime of crying. I won't go any further because I don't want to spoil the book, but I found it an amazing, gripping little tale. It's a slim book and a fast read, as the evil emanating from the Chosen Ones compound seems to surround and smother Kyra and her family, like the smoke from a nearby forest fire. She is thwarted at each turn by men who have dealt with reluctant teenaged brides before. But with each passing horror, she becomes more and more determined to escape, and not submit to her elderly uncle, a man who has rather fast hands for an Apostle. Her uncle, The Prophet, the God Squad, and the other Apostles are just as determined that Kyra will submit, and be the epitome of the obedient child bride. Although the book is considered fiction, it could be plucked from the headlines. The beatings, the forced modesty, the killing of babies, the "disappearance" of young men, and the marriage of young girls to old men all have been reported recently as the press takes a close look at some of the radic

This book captivated me from its first sentence to its last. Kyra is a very likable and highly sympathetic character, and her story is extremely suspenseful. There is enough tragedy peppered throughout the story that you know in the reading this is not one of those books where everyone gets a happy ending. You can only hope that Kyra will. I will not say too much about the dynamics of her relationships with her family, friends, community, but they are complex and believable. The heart goes out to some who are well-intentioned and loving but ineffective at protecting themselves or others. The villains may not be on screen enough to become fully three-dimensional, but the heroes--and victims--certainly are. There is not a stock character among them. Caveat to parents consider this: the book is by no means explicit in its handling of some very mature subjects (like barely teenaged brides), but its subjects are very mature. There is a very ugly underbelly to Kyra's story, and if the story doesn't dwell on it, it doesn't pretend it's not there. I recommend.

I have had a mini-facination with pologymst cults and I thought it was very interesting that there was a young adult novel written about it. I read these stories and am amazed time and time again by how strong these women have to be to leave their families, their religion, their entire lives, to start out with nothing. This story was very similar to the autobiographical stories that I have read, and if possible, it was every bit as heartwrenching. Kyra, is an almost 13 year old, living with her father and her mother (father's third wife) and an large assortment of brothers and sisters. She has recently begun a 'secret' flirtation with a boy on the compound who has told Kyra that he wants to 'chose' her to be his wife, his only wife. The two have heard stories, and seen what happens to those who don't follow 'God's' rules...really the so called Prophet's rules. Kyra's other 'sin'? She secretly meets Patrick, the mobile library driver each week to sneak a book to read. Then one day the prophet comes to vist, something he hasn't ever done before, and announces to the family that he has had a vision from God. God's revelation has told him that Kyra is to be married to Brother Hyram. Brother Hyram happens to be Kyra's sixty year old uncle. Kyra is to be Hyram's seventh wife. Aghast, Kyra vows not to let this happen. Unfortunately the Chosen Ones will stop at nothing to make sure the marriage goes through. In the past, they haven't been above murder to make sure things go their way. What happens to Kyra and those who love her is heartbreaking. Carol Lynch Williams does a standout job of making Kyra's family empathetic...it is clear Kyra's father and all three of his wives care deeply for her. They take some risks for her, but they never quite go far enough. This also rang painfully realistic to me. The story is sad, I am a bleeding heart and I did tear up several times. I read this book in a short couple of hours. I am passing this book on to my 13 year old stepdaughter in hopes that she will take to heart Kyra's strength. A must read for both adults and teens.