I’ve always really enjoyed books that play with time and space, and The Chosen Ones, by Veronica Roth, is at the intersection of many of favorite ideas and genres. It’s a nod to YA lit, adventure, fantasy, magic, parallel universes, and bonus, the historic architecture of Chicago.

The book swoops in ten years after a group of teenagers saved the world by living up to a prophecy in a United States with magic. Now they’re adults, and what happens when the high (or low) point of your life was saving the world from evil? Where do you go from there? The five Chosen Ones have different ways of working that out.

I liked the characters, the ideas, and the world they inhabited. It took storytelling tropes, magic, and mental health, as well as good and evil, and allowed them all to weave together into a really satisfying read. There’s also a fantastic slow burn romance and a great exploration of relationships.

Once you’ve read it, you may find the notes by the author over on Goodreads to be of interest. She provides a soundtrack for the book, along with thoughts about different aspects of the story, including why she explored certain ideas and her use of Chicago (and its architecture) as a setting.

I found Roth’s description of parallel universes incredibly soothing. She kind of crystalized for me a mental trick I use when I’m stressed out and feeling stuck. This is how it works: When you feel stuck, imagine/remember that there are potentially innumerable versions of you in other universes making all the choices you wonder about – they go to another college, move across the country, have only 2 kids, have ten kids, have no kids, work in a completely different field, own their own business.

Some of yous are miserable, some of them are blissfully happy, and some of them feel stuck, just like you do. But you are where you are supposed to be, because that is where you are. And in all those parallel universes, the other yous are living your best life, too. In this scenario, there are no regrets because you get to do all the things. There are no limits. Then you come back to the universe you are in, feeling good that all the possibilities are being explored. By you. Somewhere else.

This was the first book I read in awhile that I really relished. It reminded me a little of this book about time travel, in the sense that if you’re the type of person who has existential crises occasionally anyway, a good book is a way to make it less torture and more exploration and wonder.