Buzz is building forChosen Ones, the debut adult novel from Veronica Roth.
Chosen Onesfollows five individuals in the wake of a powerful, destructive entitys demise.
EW has an exclusive preview ofChosen Ones, in the form of a cover reveal and a first excerpt.
Credit: Nelson Fitch
The novel publishes April 6, 2020, and isavailable for pre-order.
But I might want to sleep with her.
I meet her at her neighborhood coffee shop, one of her usual haunts or so she says.
HMH
And thats the thing about Sloane: I believe it.
I believe she doesnt give a f about anything, least of all meeting me.
She didnt even want to do the interview.
In our preliminary exchanges about this interview, she didnt have many ideas for where I might meet her.
Im not sure I could take notes and jog at the same time, so Java Jam it is.
With a single glance, shes turned the tables, and Im the one on guard, not her.
The ten-year anniversary of your victory over the Dark One is coming up, I say.
How does it feel?
It feels like survival, she says.
Her voice is flinty and sharp.
I ask, and she rolls her eyes.
Next question, she replies, and she takes her first sip of coffee.
Thats when I realize it: I dont like her.
This woman saved thousands no, millions of lives.
Hell, she probably saved my life in one way or another.
But I still dont like her.
And she couldnt care less.
Which is why I want to sleep with her.
When she sets down her mug, I see the scar on the back of her right hand.
Its wide, stretching all the way across, and jagged and knotted.
Paper cut, she says.
Im pretty sure its supposed to be a joke, so I laugh.
It sounds like you dont enjoy it, I say.
What gave me away?
I even wonder it out loud Im curious to know how shell respond.
Not well, as it turns out.
If I were a dude, she says, would you ask me that question?
I steer us away from that topic as quickly as possible.
I click once more, inquiring about whether this time of year brings back memories for her.
I try not to think about it, she says.
If I did, my life would turn into a goddamn Advent calendar.
I click again, asking if there are any good memories to choose from.
We were all friends, you know?
We always will be.
We speak almost entirely in inside jokes when were together.
Its there that we finally get into a groove.
The so-called Chosen Ones bonded quickly after they met, with Matt as the natural leader.
Thats just the way he is, she says, and it almost sounds like shes annoyed by it.
Always taking charge, taking responsibility.
Reminding us to argue about ethics.
That sort of thing.
Surprisingly, it wasnt Matt with whom she had an immediate connection, but Albie.
He was quiet, she says, and its a compliment.
I needed the quiet.
Plus, hes from the Midwest, like me.
page, where she documents the minutiae of her life.
What do you think about the All Chosen movement thats popped up in the last few years?
Sloane doesnt mince words.
I think its racist.
Some of them say that elevating Matt over the rest of you is sexist, I point out.
Whats sexist is ignoring what I say and claiming I just dont know any better, she replies.
I think Matts the real Chosen One.
Ive said so multiple times.
Dont pretend youre doing me a favor by knocking him down.
I ask Sloane why the Dark One seemed to take a special interest in her.
Then she puts her Cubs hat right over that glorious just-fed hair and says, Were done here.
And I guess if she says were done, were done, because Sloane is out of there.
Did I mention Sloane Andrews turns me into a hunter?
I had one off-limits topic, she snaps at me.
Do you remember what it was?
Shes flushed and furious and radiant, part dominatrix and part sly, spitting street cat.
Why did I wait this long to really piss her off?
I could have been staring at this the entire time.
The off-limits topic was, of course, anything specific about her relationship to the Dark One.
Surely she didnt expect me to abide by that, I remark.
Its the most interesting thing about her.
This time, I let her go.
Sloane was up and panting.Quiet, she told herself.
She yanked open drawers, finding spoons, forks, spatulas.
A handful of rubber bands.
Why had he taken her boots?
What did a mass murderer have to fear from a girls Doc Martens?
Hello, Sloane, he whispered in her ear, and she choked on a sob.
Yanked open another drawer and found a line of handles, the blades buried in a plastic knife block.
Sloane spun around, her feet tacky on the linoleum, and swiped with the knife.
Sloane gasped as reality trickled back in.
Matt put his hands on her shoulders, his grip warm.
He had asked her that before, dozens of times.
And Matt had, checking in with her only when he had to.
Yeah, she said.
Stay here, all right?
Ill get your medicine.
Sloane braced herself on the marble counter.
The knife lay at her feet, but she didnt dare touch it again.
She took them both with shaking hands and swallowed the pill eagerly.
Bring on the coasting calm of the benzodiazepine.
She set the water glass down and slid to the floor.
Matt sat down next to the refrigerator in his boxers.
Listen, she started.
You dont have to say it.
Sure, I just almost stabbed you, but no apologies necessary.
His eyes were soft.
I just want you to be okay.
What had that awful article called him?
Quite possibly the kindest person alive?
She hadnt disagreed with Rick Lane, Creepmaster 2000, on that point at least.
He reached for the butcher knife that lay on the floor near her ankle.
It was big, almost as long as his forearm.
I know you dont want to talk to me about it, Matt said.
But what about someone else?
Dr. Novak, maybe?
She works with the VA, remember?
We did that talk together at the juvenile detention center.
Im not a soldier, Sloane said.
Yeah, but she knows about PTSD.
She had never needed an official diagnosis PTSD was definitely what she had.
But it was strange to hear Matt say it so comfortably, like it was the flu.
Ill call her in the morning.
Anyone would need therapy, you know, he said.
After what weve all been through.
I mean, Ines went.
Ines went, and shes still booby-trapping her apartment like shes living out aHome Alonefantasy, Sloane said.
Okay, so shes a bad example.
The floodlight on the back stairs glowed through the windows, all orange-yellow against Matts dark skin.
Youve never needed it, Sloane said.
He raised an eyebrow at her.
Where do you think I kept disappearing to the year after the Dark One died?
You told us you were going to doctors appointments.
What kind of doctor needs to see someone weekly formonths?
I figured something was wrong with .
Sloane gestured vaguely to her crotch.
The boys or something.
Let me get this straight.
and you never asked me about it?
She suppressed a smile of her own.
You almost sound disappointed in me.
He never left anyone behind.
She curled her toes into the tile.
Ive been before, you know.
To therapy, she said.
I went for a few months when we were sixteen.
He frowned a little.
You never told me that.
There were a lot of things she hadnt told him, hadnt told anyone.
I didnt want to worry anybody, she said.
And I still dont, so .
just dont mention this to the others, okay?
I dont want to see it in fingEsquirewith the headline Rick Lane Told You So.
Matt took her hand and twisted their fingers together.
We should go to bed.
We have to get up in four hours for the monument dedication.
Then Matt put the knife away, helped her up, and they both went back to bed.
TOP SECRETAGENCY FOR THE RESEARCH AND INVESTIGATION OF THE SUPRANORMAL
October 4, 2019Ms.
Many of the requested records remain classified.
There is no charge for these documents.
Sincerely,Mara SanchezInformation and Privacy Coordinator
Excerpted from CHOSEN ONES by Veronica Roth.
Copyright 2020 by Veronica Roth.
Published and reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
