The Chosen Ones, being all male, are the genetically created and improved `saviours'. The soldiers that will go out and fight the war and keep the naturals protected.
The Creators are naturals, humans. They are the best of the best scientists, making these beautiful boys who are left in a coma until they are thirteen. They are fed video images directly into their brains of how they are to perceive the world and the `naturals' when they are awakened or unplugged.
Once I got into this book, there was no stopping. The pages kept turning, I was in a reading trance. There are twists and sad moments, brutal moments. All is not what it seems.
I loved the use of classic books like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, passages woven into the storyline, very cleverly done.
Books were a reminder of a time when the world wasn't perfect but it was better than what the Council were doing to the humans and what the world had become. The Council, I don't understand these people? The rules are brutal , the punishment swift if you do not follow them.
This story got quite frightening the more you read, the more you realised what was actually going on. I still don't understand how the world got to where it got, but I am willing to overlook this as the characters within the pages draw you in. I don't understand anything outside of Tess' compound. There are snippets of information. My mind was trying to grab hold of some `whys'. Tessa's father's letters helped a great deal.
The book starts with Emma, Tess' sister ,who is married to Robert and dying from ......well, I wasn't quite sure. She was pregnant. She died. There was a lot of blood. If you get pregnant, you pretty much are signing your death notice. Something has happened to the female anatomy.
Tessa is angry at Robert, at everything. All Tessa has left of her family is Louisa and she does not know how to be a sister to Louisa. Her mother, an alcoholic, and her father are dead. Emma is now dead too. Tessa is not yet sixteen.
The mansion of Templeton, where the Chosen Ones live, learn, train , is a frightening place for the girls who are branded and must work there. Tessa being the oldest female in her remaining family, must suffer for her sister's wrong. The things Tessa sees...... the things she is made to do, be a part of........
Henry, Tessa's friend, they have an understanding. They know words can't fix anything. Sometimes all you need is somebody close by, to know they are there. He is the quiet boy who has become a man before her eyes, he pops in and out of the storyline.
James, a Chosen One, the only one of these boys with a scar, an imperfection, these boys are not imperfect, or else......
James behaves very human like, but the danger of what he is ,is prevalent. James should be dangerous to Tess, but he treats her different. He `sees' Tess.
Tessa is brave and leaps before she thinks. She befriends James. I loved the piano scenes. Tessa has nothing, but when James lets her read books and they steal a moment with the piano, they are special moments in this book. All the ugliness fades into the background, even if it is only for a few moments.
Tessa becomes what she feared in her sister Emma.
This story has quite a deep web of intrigue as the pages turn. You become quite tense reading the pages, hoping Tessa and James are not found out.
I could pick up book 2 now, I am buzzed. You will never be bored by this book, you will have questions, you will feel frightened and tense and hope that our world we live in now, does not become Tess' world. Pregnancy can kill you. Something has happened to women, they can't give birth. If you can't give birth, what does this mean to the human population?
Women are not needed or wanted by the Council. Boys are created, without the use of a woman. Women `disappear'. The compound will not let you run, find a better place, an escape from poverty and danger of extinction. There is so much waste within Templeton, but poverty in the compounds.
Chosen Ones took me a little bit to grasp at the start of this book. I didn't fully understand the world that Tiffany was giving me. I may have liked a prologue that gave a bigger picture to what had happened. I understood the bombs and war, and humans = naturals were a dying being.
There are questions you can't help ask yourself when you are reading.
Don't get me wrong. I really loved Tiffany's story. You just have to keep reading and pieces of puzzles slide into place. Some thoughts you have will still be unanswered, but I am incredibly intrigued for book 2.
A story of love and hope against all odds, that we as the reader want desperately to climb into the pages and help fight back, reclaim our world no matter how damaged and broken it may appear.
Michelle
