Common Sense Media Review
By Carrie R. Wheadon
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Deadly Maze Runner-like contest with Romans and dinosaurs.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 12+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
What's the Story?
In THE CHOSEN: CONTENDER, BOOK 1, Cade is stuck in a reform school after he's kicked out of prep school for a crime he didn't commit. He spends his days trying to avoid the bullies, especially Finch, and pretending he's not as smart as he is so that he doesn't attract attention. Then he wakes up all alone on the side of a cliff with a ravenous monster below him. Before he can figure out how the heck he got there, he has to save his own life. He kills the monster and runs toward a mysterious force field. When he finds he can push through it, he encounters more boys from reform school on the other side (Finch among them, unfortunately). They'd all just faced the exact same peril -- a test of some kind? -- and judging by the faraway screams, some other boys didn't survive it. Things just keep getting weirder as they cross a desert full of decomposing bodies in ancient Roman garb and enter what looks like a medieval keep. Relief at finding beds and a garden of food is short-lived when a floating drone-like computer pops up, recites their names, and begins counting down to something it calls a "qualifying round." The teens have six days and no information on what new horror awaits them.
Is It Any Good?
If you thought the Maze Runner series sorely lacked Roman soldiers and dinosaurs, the cruel world Cade and his reform school frenemies find themselves in has you covered. Plus, they fight dinos with samurai swords and slingshots in a medieval keep. Overall it works as a cool mashup, though a confusing one far into The Chosen. Readers will want to ask many questions of the ever-present floating computer before Cade thinks of them, just to get some idea of the how and why they are there and whether things get more involved plot-wise than kill or be killed.
Answers do come at the very end of this first installment -- grim ones. Here's hoping Contender, Book 2, doesn't go too far down a very dark dystopian path. Avid readers of the genre have been down it too many times before.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about Finch, the bully, and how he affects others in The Chosen. Only Spex is hit by him, yes, but who else suffers? What would you have done in each boy's shoes?
If you've read the Maze Runner and Hunger Games series, what's similar about the contest in The Chosen? What's different?
Will you read more of this series? What other mysteries do you think Cade will unveil about this world?
Book Details
- Author :
- Genre : Science Fiction
- Topics : Animals ( Dinosaurs , Wild Animals ) , Adventures , School ( High School ) , History , Fantasy
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Feiwel & Friends
- Publication date : June 4, 2019
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 12 - 18
- Number of pages : 368
- Available on : Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, Apple Books, Kindle
- Last updated : September 30, 2025
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