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A review by moj8668
The Chosen by Taran Matharu
5.0
This is not a book I would have sought out, had it not been for a readathon. Specifically, a readathon referred to as "Monsterathon" in September 2019. One of the prompts called for a book that involved aliens. A Goodreads search brought this title to my attention and I'm SO very glad it did!
Cade Carter has no way of knowing it, but beings far beyond his understanding have chosen him as the one most likely to appreciate and maybe even win their game. The stakes are higher than he can possibly imagine. He and some of his fellow students from an alternative school for troubled teens are pulled into the game whether they want to be contenders or not. And the only way home is to win it all.
The environment is hostile and confusing - pieces of Earth's history scattered across the planet. Whole cities, animal species long-thought extinct, even the remains of Roman Legionnaires. Why have he and his friends been pulled into this bizarre place and what chance do they really have of winning?
When I saw the prompt to read a book that included aliens I knew one thing - I didn't want to read another alien invasion story or some story involving astronauts being attacked while on a space station. I didn't want anything predictable. And this title delivered!
Matharu doesn't take it easy on his readers - the book opens with Cade standing on a narrow ledge above a snarling beast that looks nothing like anything he's ever seen. There are no noticeable weapons handy and even something as simple as sitting down will put him within reach of the creature which seems bent on killing him. No warning, no warm-up. The main character is in life-threatening circumstances from the first page. We get just a handful of flashbacks to help us understand Cade's life before he ended up in such dire straits - being falsely accused of grand theft, ending up in an alternative school that's barely better than a prison - but Matharu doesn't waste time on unnecessary flashbacks. Once the reader has enough to understand the boys that are brought to this bizarre world, all the flashbacks stop and we spend the rest of the story in this world that is never given a name. The school "pecking order" - with Cade firmly near the bottom - follows them to their new location but it doesn't take long for Cade's love and knowledge of history to establish him as the authority in a world where they find the remains of Roman soldiers from different eras, British schoolgirls from the '80s, and dinosaurs all co-existing. Ships that went missing in the Bermuda triangle. Inventions that vanished from trains with their creators. And an interesting little drone called the Codex that can give them information on the artifacts they find and which keeps a countdown until "the game" begins.
We don't know who brought Cade and his comrades to this crazy place until the very end and even that reveal raises more questions than answers. What types of enemies will they face once the real "game" begins? Who or what is this "Abbadon"? And do Cade and his friends really have a chance of reaching the top of the leaderboard and going home?
Cade Carter has no way of knowing it, but beings far beyond his understanding have chosen him as the one most likely to appreciate and maybe even win their game. The stakes are higher than he can possibly imagine. He and some of his fellow students from an alternative school for troubled teens are pulled into the game whether they want to be contenders or not. And the only way home is to win it all.
The environment is hostile and confusing - pieces of Earth's history scattered across the planet. Whole cities, animal species long-thought extinct, even the remains of Roman Legionnaires. Why have he and his friends been pulled into this bizarre place and what chance do they really have of winning?
When I saw the prompt to read a book that included aliens I knew one thing - I didn't want to read another alien invasion story or some story involving astronauts being attacked while on a space station. I didn't want anything predictable. And this title delivered!
Matharu doesn't take it easy on his readers - the book opens with Cade standing on a narrow ledge above a snarling beast that looks nothing like anything he's ever seen. There are no noticeable weapons handy and even something as simple as sitting down will put him within reach of the creature which seems bent on killing him. No warning, no warm-up. The main character is in life-threatening circumstances from the first page. We get just a handful of flashbacks to help us understand Cade's life before he ended up in such dire straits - being falsely accused of grand theft, ending up in an alternative school that's barely better than a prison - but Matharu doesn't waste time on unnecessary flashbacks. Once the reader has enough to understand the boys that are brought to this bizarre world, all the flashbacks stop and we spend the rest of the story in this world that is never given a name. The school "pecking order" - with Cade firmly near the bottom - follows them to their new location but it doesn't take long for Cade's love and knowledge of history to establish him as the authority in a world where they find the remains of Roman soldiers from different eras, British schoolgirls from the '80s, and dinosaurs all co-existing. Ships that went missing in the Bermuda triangle. Inventions that vanished from trains with their creators. And an interesting little drone called the Codex that can give them information on the artifacts they find and which keeps a countdown until "the game" begins.
We don't know who brought Cade and his comrades to this crazy place until the very end and even that reveal raises more questions than answers. What types of enemies will they face once the real "game" begins? Who or what is this "Abbadon"? And do Cade and his friends really have a chance of reaching the top of the leaderboard and going home?