The Good Daughter
Karin Slaughter, 2017
HarperCollins
528 pp.
ISBN-13: 978062430243
Summary
The stunning new novel from the international #1 bestselling author — a searing, spellbinding blend of cold-case thriller and psychological suspense.
Two girls are forced into the woods at gunpoint. One runs for her life. One is left behind…
Twenty-eight years ago, Charlotte and Samantha Quinn's happy small-town family life was torn apart by a terrifying attack on their family home. It left their mother dead. It left their father — Pikeville's notorious defense attorney — devastated. And it left the family fractured beyond repair, consumed by secrets from that terrible night.
Twenty-eight years later, and Charlie has followed in her father's footsteps to become a lawyer herself — the ideal good daughter. But when violence comes to Pikeville again — and a shocking tragedy leaves the whole town traumatized — Charlie is plunged into a nightmare.
Not only is she the first witness on the scene, but it's a case that unleashes the terrible memories she's spent so long trying to suppress. Because the shocking truth about the crime that destroyed her family nearly thirty years ago won't stay buried forever…
Packed with twists and turns, brimming with emotion and heart, The Good Daughter is fiction at its most thrilling. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—January 6, 1971
• Raised—Jonesboro, Georgia
• Education—Georgia State University
• Currently—lives in Atlanta, Georgia
Karin Slaughter, an American crime writer, was born in a small southern Georgia community in 1971. She now lives in Atlanta where, in addition to writing, she has been active in the "Save the Libraries" campaign on behalf of the DeKalb County Library. Slaughter is widely credited with coining the term "investigoogling" in 2006.
Publishing history
Slaughter's first novel Blindsighted, published in 2001, became an international success. It was published in almost 30 languages and made the Crime Writers' Association's Dagger Award shortlist for Best Thriller Debut of 2001. Since then, Slaughter has written some 20 books, which have sold more than 30 million copies in 32 languages.
Fractured (2008), the second novel in the Will Trent series, debuted at number one in both the UK and the Netherlands, and it was the number one adult fiction title in Australia. At the same time, Faithless (2005) became the number one bestseller in Germany.
Two of Slaughter's stories, "Rootbound" and "The Blessing of Brokenness," are included in Like a Charm, an anthology of mysteries, each of which features a charm bracelet which brings bad luck to its owner. The stories' settings vary greatly, ranging from 19th-century Georgia to wartime Leeds, England. The anthology's contributors include Lee Child, John Connolly, Emma Donoghue, Lynda La Plante, and Laura Lippman, among others.
Series
Slaughter was first known for her Grant County series set in Heartsdale, Georgia, of Grant County (both fictional locales). The stories are told through the perspectives of three primary characters: Sara Linton, the town's pediatrician and part-time coroner; Jeffrey Tolliver, the chief of police and Linton's husband; and Detective Lena Adams.
The Will Trent series, debuting in 2006, takes place in Atlanta. The series features special Agent Will Trent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and his partner Faith Mitchell.
Next came the Georgia Series, beginning in 2009 with Undone. This series brings together characters from the Grant County and Will Trent/Atlanta novels.
Stand-alone works
Martin Misunderstood is an original audio novella narrated by Wayne Knight. Both story and narration were nominated for an Audie Award in 2009. The book was translated into Dutch and given away to over one million readers. Thorn in My Side (2011) is an ebook novella.
Other stand-alones include Cop Town (2014), Pretty Girls (2015), and The Good Daughter (2017) — all of which received strong reviews. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 10/8/2015.)
Book Reviews
[N]ot for the squeamish.… The plot twists here are satisfyingly surprising and plausible, but it’s Slaughter’s prodigious gifts of characterization that make her stand out among thriller writers.… Some readers may find that at 500 pages The Good Daughter is a little longer than it needs to be … but in Slaughter’s big tome neither does there seem to be a word wasted, which is quite a feat.
Richard Lipez - Washington Post
Slaughter’s work is like a professional athlete coming to the playground to show the kids how it’s done. With her themes, tensions and metaphors, she has a talent for classic literature that is often missing in recent fiction.
Romance Times Reviews
[G]ripping.… Slaughter keeps the twists coming, but some plot developments come at the expense of psychological depth.
Publishers Weekly
Though this is a crime novel, suspenseful and thrilling in every way, at its heart it is an exploration of family and the ties that persist through the most difficult moments.… Slaughter delves into our darkest selves to reveal what is truly human.
Library Journal
Slaughter is a master of her craft. Her characters … are deep and multifaceted, and here, the tightly packed story unfolds at a perfect pace that leaves readers frantically turning pages even as the harrowing violence within makes them cringe. — Rebecca Vnuk
Booklist
It’s hard to think of any writer since Flannery O’Connor, referenced at several key moments here, who’s succeeded as consistently as Slaughter at using horrific violence to evoke pity and terror. Whether she’s extending her franchise or creating stand-alones like this, she really does make your hair stand on end.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for The Good Daughter … and then take off on your own:
1. What do you think of Rusty Quinn? Why is he so roundly disliked in Pikeville? Why does he defend seemingly "indefensible" people? Does he have any justification?
2. Follow-up to Question 1: How does the book portray the town of Pikeville? Consider, especially, the justice system.
3. If you can handle its grisly nature, discuss the night of the murder and rapes at the beginning of the novel. Why do you think the author wrote the scene in such a graphic manner?
4. How would you describe Charlie's character? How have the violent events of 30 years past affected her life? Talk about her husband and their relationship. Is Ben a sympathetic character in your eyes?
5. Talk about Sam? For one so determined never to turn back, why does she decide to return home and take the case?
6. What is the relationship between the two sisters? (Consider the coffin lid scene in the funeral parlor.)
7. Who is the good daughter?
__________
GENERIC DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Mystery / Crime / Suspense Thrillers
1. Talk about the characters, both good and bad. Describe their personalities and motivations. Are they fully developed and emotionally complex? Or are they flat, one-dimensional heroes and villains?
2. What do you know...and when do you know it? At what point in the book do you begin to piece together what happened?
3. Good crime writers embed hidden clues in plain sight, slipping them in casually, almost in passing. Did you pick them out, or were you...clueless? Once you've finished the book, go back to locate the clues hidden in plain sight. How skillful was the author in burying them?
4. Good crime writers also tease us with red-herrings—false clues—to purposely lead readers astray? Does your author try to throw you off track? If so, were you tripped up?
5. Talk about the twists & turns—those surprising plot developments that throw everything you think you've figured out into disarray.
- Do they enhance the story, add complexity, and build suspense?
- Are they plausible or implausible?
- Do they feel forced and gratuitous—inserted merely to extend the story?
6. Does the author ratchet up the suspense? Did you find yourself anxious—quickly turning pages to learn what happened? A what point does the suspense start to build? Where does it climax...then perhaps start rising again?
7. A good ending is essential in any mystery or crime thriller: it should ease up on tension, answer questions, and tidy up loose ends. Does the ending accomplish those goals?
- Is the conclusion probable or believable?
- Is it organic, growing out of clues previously laid out by the author (see Question 3)?
- Or does the ending come out of the blue, feeling forced or tacked-on?
- Perhaps it's too predictable.
- Can you envision a different or better ending?
8. Are there certain passages in the book—ideas, descriptions, or dialogue—that you found interesting or revealing...or that somehow struck you? What lines, if any, made you stop and think?
9. Overall, does the book satisfy? Does it live up to the standards of a good crime story or suspense thriller? Why or why not?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Bridge of Clay
Markus Zusak, 2018
Random House Children's
544 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780375845598
Summary
An unforgettable and sweeping family saga from the storyteller who gave us the extraordinary bestseller The Book Thief.
The breathtaking story of five brothers who bring each other up in a world run by their own rules. As the Dunbar boys love and fight and learn to reckon with the adult world, they discover the moving secret behind their father’s disappearance.
At the center of the Dunbar family is Clay, a boy who will build a bridge—for his family, for his past, for greatness, for his sins, for a miracle.
The question is, how far is Clay willing to go? And how much can he overcome?
Written in powerfully inventive language and bursting with heart, Bridge of Clay is signature Zusak. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1975
• Where—Sydney, Australia
• Awards—Michael L. Printz Honor, 2006 and 2007; Kathleen Mitchell Award, 2006; Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award, 2003
• Currently—lives in Sydney, Australia
Australian author Markus Zusak grew up hearing stories about Nazi Germany, about the bombing of Munich and about Jews being marched through his mother’s small, German town. He always knew it was a story he wanted to tell.
"We have these images of the straight-marching lines of boys and the ‘Heil Hitlers’ and this idea that everyone in Germany was in it together. But there still were rebellious children and people who didn’t follow the rules and people who hid Jews and other people in their houses. So there’s another side to Nazi Germany,” said Zusak in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald.
By the age of 30, Zusak had already asserted himself as one of the most innovative and poetic novelists around. After publication of The Book Thief, he was dubbed a"literary phenomenon" by Australian and U.S. critics. In 2018 he published Bridge of Clay, also to wide acclaim.
Zusak is the award-winning author of four previous books for young adults: The Underdog, Fighting Ruben Wolfe, Getting the Girl, and I Am the Messenger, recipient of a 2006 Printz Honor for excellence in young adult literature. He lives in Sydney. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
There’s much to love about this capacious novel, but there’s also so much… an extravagantly overengineered story.
Washington Post
This book is a stunner. Devastating, demanding and deeply moving, Bridge of Clay unspools like a kind of magic act in reverse, with feats of narrative legerdemain concealed by misdirection that all make sense only when the elements of the trick are finally laid out.
Wall Street Journal
In a complex narrative that leaps through time and place and across oceans, Zusak paints a vivid portrait of the brothers trying to regain their balance by keeping their family’s story alive.
Time
If The Book Thief was a novel that allowed Death to steal the show… [its] brilliantly illuminated follow-up is affirmatively full of life.
Guardian (UK)
Warm and heartfelt.… This is a tale of love, art and redemption; rowdy and joyous, with flashes of wit and insight, and ultimately moving.
London Times
(Starred review) [E]exquisitely written…. With heft and historical scope, Zusak creates a sensitively rendered tale of loss, grief, and guilt’s manifestations (Ages 14–up).
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review) The tone is sometimes somber and always ominous, leaving readers anxious about the fates of these characters whom they have grown to love…. A lovely boy and an unforgettably lovely book to match.
Booklist
Years after the death of their mother, the fourth son in an Australian family of five boys reconnects with his estranged father.… Much like building a bridge stone by stone, this read requires painstaking effort and patience (Age 16-adult).
Kirkus Review
Discussion Questions
1. The book starts with a striking scenario: "In the beginning there was one murderer, one mule and one boy.…" What expectations did this give you for the novel? Do you think this is representative of the story as a whole?
2. Penny’s and Michael’s upbringings are very different. Do you see ref lections of their childhoods in the way they choose to bring up the boys? What do you think was the purpose of focusing on their family history?
3. Each of the Dunbar brothers seems to be connected to one of the pets. Can you draw connections between these relationships and the animals’ literary names?
4. Why are Michael, and later Clay, determined to build the bridge? Do you believe that they are doing it for different reasons?
5. Clay and Carey’s relationship is a cornerstone of his story—why do you think he was able to tell her things that he couldn’t tell his brothers? How do you think her death affected the remainder of his story?
6. Readers go over the story of Penny’s death a few times throughout the later sections of the narrative. What more do we learn about her character and about how her passing transformed all the boys? How do each of the boys react?
7. On pg. 9, Matthew says: "Let me tell you about our brother. The fourth Dunbar boy named Clay. Everything happened to him. We were all of us changed through him." Discuss the changes this is referring to. How are each of the boys different by the end of the story?
8. The action that makes up the bulk of the novel has already happened when Matthew tells us the story. Were you still surprised by the conclusion and where all the boys ended up?
9. At first it is not clear why Matthew is narrator, but later on (pg. 490) he says:
For starters, this story wasn’t over yet.
And even then, it wouldn’t be him.
The story was his, but not the writing.
It was hard enough living and being it.
Why do you think it was important to tell this story? What can you assume about Matthew’s relationship with Clay following the events in the book?
10. Bridge of Clay is about the complexity of the relationships within the Dunbar family. As you read their story, did you find anything relatable? Was there anything you found hard to empathize with?
11. Markus Zusak has said:
Bridge of Clay is about Clay Dunbar, who builds a bridge to honor his parents.… He builds a bridge for his brothers, but he’s also building the bridge for himself. That’s his one attempt at greatness. And I think he really wants to produce a miracle as a kind of cure for the tragedies he’s endured, and he wants to make one great thing to transcend humanness. I think at the end of the day, even if he falls short, he just wants it to be a great attempt, and that to me is what the book is really about.
How do you assess Clay’s "great attempt"?
(Questions issued by the publisher. See the complete Discussion Guide.)
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Godshot
Chelsea Bieker, 2020
Catapult Books
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781948226486
Summary
Drought has settled on the town of Peaches, California. The area of the Central Valley where fourteen-year-old Lacey May and her alcoholic mother live was once an agricultural paradise.
Now it’s an environmental disaster, a place of cracked earth and barren raisin farms.
In their desperation, residents have turned to a cult leader named Pastor Vern for guidance. He promises, through secret "assignments," to bring the rain everybody is praying for.
Lacey has no reason to doubt the pastor. But then her life explodes in a single unimaginable act of abandonment: her mother, exiled from the community for her sins, leaves Lacey and runs off with a man she barely knows.
Abandoned and distraught, Lacey May moves in with her widowed grandma, Cherry, who is more concerned with her taxidermy mouse collection than her own granddaughter. As Lacey May endures the increasingly appalling acts of men who want to write all the rules and begins to uncover the full extent of Pastor Vern’s shocking plan to bring fertility back to the land, she decides she must go on a quest to find her mother no matter what it takes.
With her only guidance coming from the romance novels she reads and the unlikely companionship of the women who knew her mother, she must find her own way through unthinkable circumstances.
Possessed of an unstoppable plot and a brilliantly soulful voice, Godshot is a book of grit and humor and heart, a debut novel about female friendship and resilience, mother-loss and motherhood, and seeking salvation in unexpected places. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1988-89 (?)
• Raised—Fresno, California, USA
• Education—B.S., Poly Cal, San Luis Obispo; M.F.A., Portland State University
• Currently—lives in Portland, Oregon
Chelsea Bieker is from California’s Central Valley. She is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Writer’s Foundation Award and her fiction and essays have been published in Granta, McSweeney’s, Catapult magazine, Electric Literature, and Joyland, among other publications.
She was awarded a MacDowell Colony fellowship and holds an MFA in creative writing from Portland State University. Godshot is her first novel, inspired by her own mother's fleeing an abusive husband, Bieker's father. Read her heart-rending essay in The Paris Review.
Bieker lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and children, where she teaches writing. (Adapted from the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Fiercely written and endlessly readable, a novel like this is a godsend.
Entertainment Weekly
[P]ropulsive, ambitious…. Bieker straddles the line between darkly comic and downright dark, and excels in portraying female friendships…. Bieker’s excellent debut plants themes seen in… The Handmaid’s Tale into a realistic California setting that will linger with readers.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review) Lacey May’s is an irresistible voice, part gullible believer, part whip-smart independent spirit who surprises at every turn. Debut novelist Bieker weaves in the political battles being fought on multiple fronts.
Library Journal
(Starred review) [A] vivid and cutting exploration of… how mothers shape daughters, biological or otherwise, and how daughters must ultimately learn to mother themselves. Young readers will admire Lacy May’s resilience, moxie, and ability to survive in a world she did not choose.
Booklist
(Starred review) Lacey May is such a strong narrator, at once deeply insightful and painfully naïve, that readers will eagerly want to follow all the threads to the breathless conclusion. A dark, deft first novel about the trauma and resilience of both people and the land they inhabit.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers Book Club Resources. They can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(Resources by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
The Most Dangerous Place on Earth
Lindsey Lee Johnson, 2017
Random House
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780812997279
Summary
An unforgettable cast of characters is unleashed into a realm known for its cruelty—the American high school—in this captivating debut novel.
The wealthy enclaves north of San Francisco are not the paradise they appear to be, and nobody knows this better than the students of a local high school.
Despite being raised with all the opportunities money can buy, these vulnerable kids are navigating a treacherous adolescence in which every action, every rumor, every feeling, is potentially postable, shareable, viral.
Lindsey Lee Johnson’s kaleidoscopic narrative exposes at every turn the real human beings beneath the high school stereotypes. Abigail Cress is ticking off the boxes toward the Ivy League when she makes the first impulsive decision of her life: entering into an inappropriate relationship with a teacher.
Dave Chu, who knows himself at heart to be a typical B student, takes desperate measures to live up to his parents’ crushing expectations.
Emma Fleed, a gifted dancer, balances rigorous rehearsals with wild weekends. Damon Flintov returns from a stint at rehab looking to prove that he’s not an irredeemable screw-up. And Calista Broderick, once part of the popular crowd, chooses, for reasons of her own, to become a hippie outcast.
Into this complicated web, an idealistic young English teacher arrives from a poorer, scruffier part of California. Molly Nicoll strives to connect with her students—without understanding the middle school tragedy that played out online and has continued to reverberate in different ways for all of them.
Written with the rare talent capable of turning teenage drama into urgent, adult fiction, The Most Dangerous Place on Earth makes vivid a modern adolescence lived in the gleam of the virtual, but rich with sorrow, passion, and humanity. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1980
• Where—Mill Valley, California, USA
• Education—B.A., University of California-Davis; M.A., University of Southern California.
• Currently—lives in Los Angeles, California
Lindsey Lee Johnson is an American author raised in Mill Valley in California's Marin County (north of San Francisco). Her novel, The Most Dangerous Place on Earth, was published in 2016.
Education
Johnson earned her BA in English from the University of California at Davis and an MA in professional writing from the University of Southern California (USC). She has taught writing at USC, Clark College, and Portland State University. She has also served as a tutor and mentor at a private learning center where her focus has been teaching writing to teenagers.
Early career
After getting a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of California at Davis, and a master of professional writing from the University of Southern California, Johnson got a teaching fellowship at USC. But when the recession hit, her teaching contract wasn't renewed, should could no longer afford her newly purchased house...and she broke up with her boyfriend.
So it was back home to Mill Valley, with tail between her legs, to live in her parents' home. She took what work she could find and ended working with students at Sage Educators, a tutoring and SAT prep firm. After four years, Johnson says she gained a real taste for what life is like today for teenagers.
Writing
“I’ve always wanted to be a novelist,” Johnson told an interviewer for the Marin County Independent Journal. When she was 24, she took her stab at writing a book. It was so bad that she “sat down and wrote another one.” It took four or five attempts before she turned out her first published novel, The Most Dangerous Place on Earth.
Johnson is now married and lives with her husband in Los Angeles, California. (Adapted from the author's website and from Marin Independent Journal.)
Book Reviews
[An] alarming, compelling and coolly funny debut novel…Ms. Johnson's characters are unpredictable, contradictory and many things at once, which make them particularly satisfying…Here's high school life in all its madness…For its compassion, its ability to see the humanity inside even the most apparently hopeless person and the shimmering intelligence of its prose, The Most Dangerous Place on Earth reminded me a bit of Rick Moody's great 1994 novel, The Ice Storm. You end up sympathizing with and aching for even characters who appear to be irredeemable.
Sarah Lyall - New York Times
Johnson beautifully lays out the complex factors that lead Cally and her friends to brutally bully a fellow student. The cruel episode has a tragic momentum that is hard to read, and also hard to put down. Johnson's novel possesses a propulsive quality, an achievement in a book of, after the initial traumatic event, short character sketches. Yet it moves forward relentlessly, towing the reader with it. I read this book in one, long sitting. A young high school teacher stumbles on buried secrets in this engrossing, multilayered drama.
Trine Tsouderos - Chicago Tribune
If you are cruising for a quality read that’s also an unputdownable quickie, reach for Lindsey Lee Johnson’s debut novel, The Most Dangerous Place on Earth. It’s a high-wire high school drama.
Elle
The characters in Lindsey Lee Johnson’s debut novel affected me in a way I can’t remember feeling since I binge-watched all five seasons of Friday Night Lights. . . . You’ll walk away feeling like you could revisit a hallway drama armed with bulletproof perspective.
Glamour
(Starred review.) Johnson allows [her] dramas to unfold through various shifting perspectives..., keeps the action brisk and deepens readers’ investment, culminating in high school party that goes wrong. Readers may find themselves so swept up in this enthralling novel that they finish it in a single sitting.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Johnson's polished debut novel puts a human face to the details of today's daily headlines of teen life. The characters' wildly risky behaviors are somewhat offset by their ability to excel academically, athletically, and artistically, if not emotionally. This bleak, potent picture will scare the pants off readers. —Beth Andersen, formerly with Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI
Library Journal
[A]cutely observed novel [may] have been more successful if the author hadn't felt compelled to include all of the following scenarios: A boy…jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge… A girl preyed on by a pedophile middle school teacher… [A] popular athlete...acting in pornographic gay films. Hella effort but may not make bank.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to start a discussion for The Most Dangerous Place on Earth...then take off on your own:
1. What does the quote from Milton's Paradise Lost have to do with the novel at hand? Why might the author have opened her book with the epigraph?
2. What kind of place is Mill Valley, California, the novel's setting? What kind of life does it provide for the teens involved? Describe the inner lives of these youngsters. What about their parents? What pressures, both familial and peer, face the teens in this novel? Are both teens and problems realistically portrayed?
3. Which of the characters—if any do—you find sympathetic? What about Molly Nicoll, who desperately wants to connect with her students? In what way would you say she is overly invested in their struggles?
4. Talk about teenagers' capacity for cruelty. Does this novel exaggerate the ugly behavior, or is it a realistic description? Is the issue that the novel presents—"rich kids have problems too"—overblown? Or is it serious?
5. Follow-up to Question 4: Consider your own school days? Were your compeers as mean-spirited, petty, or even as vicious as the way Lindsey Lee Johnson portrays her characters? If not...do you think today's teenagers are crueler? Or is it that they have social media to do more damage?
6. What would you like to say to any one, or all, of these young people? What advice would you offer? Or what admonishment?
7. What do you think of the choice of titles? Is it appropriate, or is there one you think might be better?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
The Chosen Ones
Veronica Roth, 2020
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH Books)
432 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780358164081
Summary
Fifteen years ago, five ordinary teenagers were singled out by a prophecy to take down an impossibly powerful entity wreaking havoc across North America.
He was known as the Dark One, and his weapon of choice—catastrophic events known as Drains—leveled cities and claimed thousands of lives.
Chosen Ones, as the teens were known, gave everything they had to defeat him.
After the Dark One fell, the world went back to normal … for everyone but them. After all, what do you do when you’re the most famous people on Earth, your only education was in magical destruction, and your purpose in life is now fulfilled?
Of the five, Sloane has had the hardest time adjusting. Everyone else blames the PTSD—and her huge attitude problem—but really, she’s hiding secrets from them … secrets that keep her tied to the past and alienate her from the only four people in the world who understand her.
On the tenth anniversary of the Dark One’s defeat, something unthinkable happens: one of the Chosen Ones dies.
When the others gather for the funeral, they discover the Dark One’s ultimate goal was much bigger than they, the government, or even prophecy could have foretold—bigger than the world itself.
And this time, fighting back might take more than Sloane has to give. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—August 19, 1988
• Where—New York City, New York, USA
• Raised—Barrington, Illinois
• Education—B.A., Northwest University
• Currently—lives in Chicago, Illinois
Veronica Roth (born ) is an American novelist and short story writer known for her debut New York Times bestselling Divergent trilogy.
Roth, the youngest of three children, was born in New York City and raised primarily in Barrington, Illinois. Her parents divorced when she was five years old. Roth's maternal grandparents were Polish concentration camp survivors during World War II. Their religious convictions pushed Roth's mother away from religion, but Veronica attended a Christian Bible study during her high school years, and has remained a Christain.
Roth graduated from Barrington High School. After attending a year of college at Carleton College, she transferred to Northwestern University for its creative writing program and wrote her first book, Divergent, while on winter break in her senior year. She married photographer Nelson Fitch in 2011. They reside in the Chicago area.
Career
Roth is best known for her trilogy of novels: Divergent (2011), Insurgent (2012), and Allegiant (2013).
She is the recipient of the Goodreads 2011 Choice Award and the Best of 2012 in the category Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction and also Best Goodreads Author in 2012. Her career took off rapidly with the success of her first novel, with the movie rights sold before she graduated from college. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 7/5/2014.)
Book Reviews
[A] successful adult debut.… Roth handles heavy topics, including mental health and racism, with great care, and once the story picks up, readers will be delighted by both the magical adventure and the diverse cast. This is a thoughtful, well-crafted twist on a genre staple.
Publishers Weekly
[The] novel is driven by Sloane,who… doesn’t truly understand her full power until the shocking ending. Those who like twisty power plays and very detailed worldbuilding will appreciate this… [The Chosen Ones] features magic, lots of sarcasm, and a hint of romance.
Booklist
(Starred review) [I]t makes sense that [Roth] can so expertly deconstruct [YA] tropes for adult audiences. There’s a lot of magic and action to make for a propulsive plot, but much more impressive are the character studies…. Roth makes a bold entrance to adult fantasy.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for THE CHOSEN ONES … then take off on your own:
1. Start with Sloan: she's not particularly likable. How did that affect your experience reading the novel given that she is the its central character? Does likeability matter? Can you admire someone you don't like? What other traits might be equally, perhaps more, important?
2. Talk about the psychological and emotional burdens of coping with past trauma—and triumph. How have those previous events, as well as current fame, shaped Sloan's life as an adult?
3. What about the others: Matthew Weekes, Esther Park, and Albert Summers. How have each of them fared over the past 10 years? What are the tolls they've paid—Albert, especially?
4. Why does seem Matt unwilling to deny that there's been any lasting impact on the group?
5.The author seems to be asking: how can anyone push through past pain and learn to make contributions to the betterment of the world? What would you say to the Chosen Ones now living as adults? What has your own experience been coping with trauma?
6. What were the drains?
7. In what ways does Sloan challenge the so-called norms of feminine behavior? To be a success, either in fantasies or in real life, do women have to push the boundaries of "acceptable" female behavior… or not? Come to think of it, what is acceptable female behavior?
8. What is the role of prophecy in The Chosen Ones? How does it work to create a sense of dread? To what extent do prophecies mean that we have little control over our lives? (In this novel, however, the prophecy was not the one that was expected, was it?)
9. Who are the Dark One's fanatical followers and why are they so devoted?
10. What does Sloane discover while reading through the information she obtains under the Freedom of Information Act?
11. What does it say, perhaps symbolically, that adults turned to the young, tasking them with ridding the world of the Dark One?
12. This is Veronica Roth's first adult novel. If you're a devoted fan and have read her YA works, how does this book compare—are there differences… similarities? Is it as magical? Is it plot driven? Character driven? Why is it marketed as an "adult" rather than a YA novel?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)