CHOSEN by Kiersten White – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Chosen by Kiersten White
Series: Slayer #2
Published by Simon Pulse on January 7 2020
Genres: Young adult, Fantasy
Pages: 368
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Kiersten White’s Buffyverse series wraps up nicely with Chosen, despite a few uneven plot points, and our favorite characters are back with plenty of snarky humor and Buffy Easter eggs.

“Anyway, you should have said you were a Slayer. Slayers and I go way back. Here.” He pulls out one of his cards, scribbling an address on the back. “If you see Buffy, tell her Clem says hello, would you? And if you see that good-for-nothing peroxided nightmare of a vampire, tell him I haven’t forgotten he owes me ten Scottish Folds and three Siamese.”

Kiersten White wraps up her Slayer duology with Chosen, a series set in Joss Whedon’s Buffy universe which focuses more on Watchers than Slayers. Set after the events of the Season 8 comics, we meet Nina and her Watcher friends as they try to carry on with their duties after Buffy has basically broken all magic and in doing so, sealed off all the portals to other worlds. I really enjoyed this book, and even though it wasn’t perfect and I do have some issues with the story, overall it made my Buffy-loving heart very happy indeed. I still feel that fans of the series will get more out of this than non-fans, because my favorite parts in both books were the inside jokes and references to the show that are randomly tucked into the story. Readers who aren’t familiar with the Buffyverse will completely miss these references, but the story itself is strong enough to stand on its own, even if you’ve never watched a single episode.

Beware: minor spoilers for the first book, Slayer!

The story picks up after the end of Slayer. Leo, Nina’s love interest, died at the end of the book, in order to save the gang from his evil mother, Eve Silvera. And Nina and her twin sister Artemis are now separated, after Artemis decided to abandon the Watcher life in the castle and leave with her girlfriend Honora. Before Leo died, he imbued Nina with some of his demony powers, and she’s now back to full Slayer strength. The Watcher castle is now called Sanctuary and Nina and her friends are taking in demons to keep them safe. Not everyone is happy with this arrangement, but Nina is fiercely loyal to her demon friends Doug and Cillian, who we met in the first book, and she knows that not all demons are evil.

Nina is mourning the fact that Artemis has left them, but she’s distracted by several events. First, a man named Ian Von Alston has maneuvered Nina into a deadly game, where the lives of several other Slayers are at stake, not to mention an innocent werewolf. And the appearance of a weird symbol suggests that a powerful god called the Sleeping One is working with Artemis towards some unknown, nefarious end. Nina certainly has her hands full, as she tries to save her friends—and prevent the end of the world—while dealing with the emotional baggage of Artemis’s desertion and Leo’s death. Oh, and did I mention things with her mom are tense as well?

Two elements really made this series for me: the humor and the Buffy references. First, Kiersten White has really nailed the humor and comedic timing of the show—she’s clearly watched all the episodes and is a big Buffy fan herself. Her dialog is spot on and at times feels as if it’s been written by Whedon or one of the other writers of the show. For example, when Nina runs into a couple of vamps:

“Oh no. Two vampires. Help, help.” I pull out a stake.

I mean, I can just see Buffy’s eyes rolling and hear her snarky, sarcastic voice! I also loved the humorous banter between the characters, particularly between Nina and Doug. Doug is probably my favorite character in the story, and when he and Nina get together they’re hysterically funny.

This might be a minor spoiler, but Oz makes an appearance in Chosen, and I was not expecting that at all. His character is really well done, and even though he’s only in a few scenes, those scenes were some of my favorites.

And White gives us Buffy fans what we really want: lots of references to the TV show. I was thrilled at the mentions of such Buffy characters as Faith, Giles, Spike, Clem, Wesley and even Harmony (!) Fans might also remember a Chinese Slayer named Chao-Ahn who makes an appearance in Season 7, and is one of the Slayers Nina runs into while she’s trying to save the werewolf. And let’s not forget Buffy. Buffy herself isn’t part of this story, but she does show up in Nina’s Slayer dreams (Slayers are able to communicate with each other in dreams), so we do get a few tantalizing glimpses of what she’s doing, although most of the Slayers in this story still resent her for lots of reasons. This would have been an entirely different story if the author had left out these wonderful moments, so I’m very grateful for them.

As far as negatives, I did have a couple of minor issues. I found Chosen to be a little confusing at times. There is a lot going on in this story and not all of the plot points felt cohesive. One of the narrative choices White made was to tell the story from two different POVs: Nina’s and Artemis’s. Nina’s chapters are told in first person, while Artemis’s are in third person. Add to the fact that Artemis’s story doesn’t get equal page time, the entire storyline where Artemis and Honora are plotting against Sanctuary (or at least that’s what Nina thinks they’re doing) felt oddly tacked on.

There are also quite a few characters to sift through. I counted not one but three different “bad guys” in the story, not all of who turn out to actually be bad, but I think this added to some of my confusion. I wanted more time with my favorites, like Doug, Cillian and Oz, and less time with Artemis and Honora, who just didn’t work that well for me this time.

But I have to say, White pulled off the ending perfectly. Everything wraps up nicely on an emotional and nostalgic note, and I even loved the short Epilogue she includes at the end. Buffy fans will definitely find a lot to love about this series.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy. Above quotes were taken from an uncorrected proof and may differ in the final version of the book.