Customer Reviews

The Chosen (Night World)

5 star:		(55)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is my all time favourite L.J. Smith book although it is closely followed by Huntress. I loved Rashel's strong character and Quinn was to die for as the vampire guy with no heart. I felt that this was the best written book and the characters were a lot more realistic than in some previous ones. Also nice touch with the flashbacks into their pasts to give them more depth and background.

Rashel kicks butt in her role as the breathtakingly beautiful and devastatingly dangerous slayer of vampires. Ever since she was a kid, Rashel has been picking off evil Night World people and she has never been beaten or caught. Determined to find the vampire who killed her mother, a chance encounter with the deadly vmpire Quinn will change her life.

When she gives him a chance to escape, Quinn realises that this beautiful girl is far from what she seems. Later, they meet again and once again, Rashel is faced with either killing him or letting him escape and possibly ruining her disguise. She lets him go and soon after, he too his faced with the same choice.

Fantastic! Deserves 10 stars! Couple of questions though. Why is it that the humans never seem to want to become vampires? It's not that bad really, from the book description and would solve problems like dying. The best book though!

looking for vampire scum! After a friend and family perish at the hands of an evil vampire Rashel whips herself into killer shape and goes on a rampage as she leads a double life...hunting vampires by night and attending school during the day! All is well for Rashell, kicking vampire butt at night until she crosses paths with a magnetic vampire named Quinn. Rashell finds herself foiling the kidnapping plan and letting Quinn go free!
Their paths then cross again when Rashel goes undercover at a Nightworld night club...
Quinn has no idea the beautiful green eyed girl he meets at the underground club is the same lethal vampire slayer he met that night he was ambushed and then set free by. A determined Rashell wants to be let into a nightworld slave trade and will use all her wiles to get Quinn to let her into the slave trade.
This book has an exsplosive ending! Astonishing secrets are revealed to both Quinn and Rashel. L.J. Smith is my top author and I also suggest Christopher Pike.

As the fifth book in the Night World series, 'The Chosen' improves on all four of the previous books, drawing on deeper themes and ideas than the rest, and setting the scene for this continuing trend in the next book 'Soulmate'.
Rashel Jordan is only five years old when she witnesses her mother being killed and her younger brother Timmy being drunken from by a vampire. Because she's seen the killer and is telling others about what happened he comes after her when she stays at her Aunt Corinne's house, burning it to the ground. Rashel is alone in the world.
At seventeen years old, she is the bane of vampire-kind. Calling herself 'the Cat' she hunts and kills their kind in all of the major cities, and there is a large bounty on her head. At the time this story takes place Rashel goes to the Lancers, a human organisation for killing vampires and joins in with a small group who're watching a warehouse that has been lately occupied by vampires. Their goal is to catch a vampire and discover its reasons for being there - through torture if need be. Among the group is a young girl named Nyala whose sister was killed by a vampire. Yet when the vampire is caught and the others go to scout around, Rashel finds that to her horror she and the vampire - Quinn (last seen in Daughters of Darkness) are soulmates. Letting him go, Rashel finds that she is suddenly wanted by both sides of the fight - the vampires still have a bounty on her head, and the Lancers think she has defected to the other side.
And it doesn't end there. While on the run from both of them Rashel literally runs into a young girl Daphne Childs, who is one of the missing young girls of late. With her in tow Rashel has access to exactly what the vampires are up to. For unknown reasons - though Rashel suspects its the slave trade - girls are being abucted from a club known as the Black Iris by none other than Quinn himself. Rashel's mission is clear - get into the club, become one of these 'chosen' and thus get herself to one of the secret and hidden vampire enclaves. And she'll have to do it by herself...

As you can see, the premise is a fascinating one, and there is no shortage of interesting characters and ideas. Not all vampires are bad, not all humans are good so it would seem, and there are enough twists and turns, suspence and excitement to keep most people interested. It draws on things mentioned from the other books - the enclave is probably much like the ones Rowan, Kestrel and Jade escaped from in Daughters of Darkness, and the password that Rashel uses with the Lancers 'the night has a thousand eyes/and the day only one' is re-used in the prophesy in book seven. L. J. Smith extends more on her idea and the nature of the Night World than previously seen, and several characters pop up that will have appearences in other books - namely Hunter and Lily Redfern.
The 'mission' plot strand gives the book some focus (too often L. J. Smith's work rambles, changes, backtracks or doesn't know where its going) and the pace is fast and never dwindles.

However, there are a few flaws, the nature of which keeps this book from being a 'five-star' novel. The character of Nyala was a complicated and intriguing one - a girl who was slightly mentally unstable. I don't want to give too much away, but for those who have read the books, I felt that she should have perished in the fire. Okay, that's not very nice of me, but a good author should know when to destroy a character for greater impact in the book's progression. But no, L.J. Smith simply *had* to save her, didn't she. She just *had* to have yet another happy, cliche-ridden ending that is so prevailent in so many of her books. To have Nyala has a tragic figure would have been both poignant and heartbreaking - *that's* what we should have come away from the book feeling.
Secondly, Daphne Child's part in the book is pretty implausible. Let me get this straight - she manages to escape from the jaws of certain death and is saves by pure chance by Rashel. And when she is faced with what she got away with, she wants to...do it again? Huh? Yes, yes, she's very brave about going back to the Night Club and letting herself get kidnapped, but come on! - it was just plain stupid. No one in real life would ever do this to themselves. It was the same when Rashel was at the docks and she turned around to find all the girls still there - face it, they would have run like deer.
It also ended very abruptly - we don't know what is to become of Timmy, of the girls, of the enclave...it ends with simply the boat sailing back to the shore. I for one had many unanswered questions, and since each book tells of a totally different couple, they weren't to be found in the next book.
Finally, the use of the name 'Timmy', brought back Lassie flashbacks: 'Oh no, Timmy's down the well!' Unfortunatly this meant whenever Timmy turned up I was plauged by visions of him floudering in water.

All in all however, a good read. One of L.J.'s more suspenseful, darker works. Highly recommended in the context of the Night World series.

But 'Timmy'?...

As the fifth book in the Night World series, especially after the insipid 4th novel "Dark Angel", it was a surprise how brilliant this one was. "The Chosen" breaks free of Night World formula, Rashel Jordan, a fierce vampire hunter out for vengeance for her mother's death does not fall in love with John Quinn an especially ruthless made vampire immediately, she instead tries to stake him.

I loved the characters in this book Rashel isn't a powerless, insipid small town girl looking for love like other heroines in the series. She is a master of martial arts and has already been exposed to the Night World by her mother's murder when she was 5. This book heralded a change in the series moving from light weight YA romance to deeper themes. It answers many questions about the Night World like "are there any humans who know about the Night World and do they hunt down its members?" Yes and Rashel "The Cat" Jordan is one of the most efficient hunters of night world prey, "Do Night Worlders ever tire of immortal life?" Yes John Quinn is close to cracking under the weight of living since Puritan times, until he meets Rashel and so an unlikely cat and mouse romance begins. Should she stake him? Should he make her a vampire like him? How can a slayer and a vampire fall in love?

This is very reminiscent of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the plot deals with how bad Night Worlders (who before this we have never really seen)think and deal with vermin/humans. A smuggling operation with human runaways as food supplies brings Quinn and Rashel together, with her determined to stop it and Quinn an equal partner in the enterprise. True to form Quinn and Rashel are soulmates who must now find a way to co-exist. For those who were heartbroken when Angel left Buffy this acts as great consolation. I urge evryone to buy this book, even if previous Night World offerings left you cold, this is where the story changes!!

This book seemed different and almost better then the other Night World book. It starts off ( if you don't count the kid part.) with Rashel the vampire hunter killing vampires. You are made to feel like she does- that vampires are just something to get rid of. But at the end of the book you are thinking totally differently. This book also seemed to explain the 'soulmate' principle the best, how Rashel and Quinn really fitted together- maybe because Rashel is such a strong character you can tell she isn't just being romantic when she and Quinn touch. Derserves six stars!

The story begins with Rachel's childhood. It caught me bcause of how well I remember my childhood. I used to love those climbing things she was on and I could definetly relate to having to make sure her friend was always tagging along. From the first chapter where it describes her past, I can definetly see how she got stronger and braver. You can tell Smith does allot of research in this book. Rachel actually seems to understand those martial arts. She's definetly not anything like me, but her character fits into the story perfectly and its definetly one of the better books in the series.

The first time I read The Chosen book I was enthrawled! I could NOT put it down and ended up finishing it in practically one sitting. The imagery and storyline are incredible! Rashel is the ultimate kick-butt-slayer chick and Quinn is one sexy vamp! Who says you can't love your enemy? LJ Smith creates romance with a viciously exciting twist!

I thought this was one of, if not the best, of LJ Smith's books. I liked the irony in having a vampire, who OTHER vampires think of as cold and ruthless, falling in love with a feared vampire hunter who hates vampires with a passion because of a incident in her past. I just have one question though......Quinn is a 400 yr. old vampire and immortal.......Rashel is human and refuses to become a vampire. There is also no hint that she is an Old Soul like Hannah ( in Soulmate). So what will Quinn do when Rashel grows old and dies why he remains forever at 18? What will the other immortal halves of the soulmates do? The lamia can grow old but "made" vampires can't. So does anybody have a opinion on this? Its one of the only major flaws that i see in the series. Other than that i love the series and can't wait till Strange Fate comes out! - Kaelar

I have to agree with the rest of you who have claimed 'The Chosen' is the best NW book to date. It truly is. It's VERY well written and Rashel and Quinn are perfect for each other. This is a book I feel only Ms. Smith could write. Does anyone agree with me when I say that the part where Rashel is saved from the werewolf by Quinn is the best part? It was so real. I felt like I was becoming the character. The part was heart-breaking yet sweet and you just knew that these two people were meant to be. Okay, I'm now done with my rambling now :) Merry Part people!

I love this book so much! HUNTRESS and DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS is tied for the #2 spot. Rashel is a vampire hunter, who had seen a vampire "eat" her friend Timmy, kill her mother, and set her great-aunt's house on fire (she herself had escaped) when she was five. Rashel is known as the Cat, a vampire hunter who always leaves a mark similiar to a cat's claws. She meets a vampire Quinn, when she's with a group of vampire hunters on a mission. Rashel knocks him out and they tie him. While the other vampire hunters go check to make sure there are no more vampires in the area, she and Quinn *rendevous*. Rashel learns a lot about his history, and she feels pity for him. Rashel decides to free him, although the vampire hunters no longer trust her...I really admire Rashel's courage and strength, and Quinn was really kind and loving at the end. THE CHOSEN is absolutely! ! positively one of LJS's best books. I'm still waiting for! STRANGE FATE to come out, and I still love the soulmate principle, however nonrealistic it may be. Q.L.