Sister of the Chosen One (Erin Armknecht and Colleen Oakes)

Sister of the Chosen One
Erin Armknecht and Colleen Oakes
Colleen Oakes, publisher
Fiction, YA Fantasy/Sci-Fi
*** (Okay)

DESCRIPTION: Being the Chosen One is a tough job. Just ask Valora Rigmore. Since her birth, she's been a celebrity, named by prophecy to be the eventual slayer of the evil Erys, the woman responsible for gathering monsters from the hidden corners of the world and imbuing them with a ravenous hunger for human flesh. Even at Proctor Moor, a Connecticut school devoted to Extraordinary students with unusual gifts, she stands out, followed by reporters and sycophants, always the center of attention - even when she's not saving people from marauding beasts. But every victory only leaves her feeling emptier, leaves her more vulnerable to the whispers in the back of her mind that, strong as her telekinesis is, she's not strong enough and never will be strong enough. Of course, she'd never admit that out loud. Not when everyone is counting on her to save the world.
If being the Chosen One is tough, then being the Chosen One's twin sister is even worse. Just ask Grier Rigmore. Quiet, bookish, curvy, and perpetually overlooked, Grier's own talent - opening small portals to move objects short distances - is never going to save anyone, let alone any world. The only reason anyone ever seems to notice her at all, she's sure, is probably because they think she can give them access to Valora, but the sisters haven't been close since almost before either can remember. When a new boy in school finally seems to see her for her, just as a teacher begins to take an interest in her teleportation and its potential, Grier has some small hope that maybe, just maybe, she can find a future away from Valora's outsized shadow.
As sibling rivalry sparks and burns, driving the two further apart, the final confrontation with Erys and her monster hordes grows ever closer... a confrontation that may well prove Valora's doubts true, and leave the world unprotected against a madwoman's ultimate triumph.

REVIEW: The premise had definite potential, showing the fractured family life of heroes and "chosen ones" and what it's like to be forever fame-adjacent, on top of the already-tumultuous trials of being a teenager and trying to figure out one's own self and life when everyone seems to have already decided both. At first, that is indeed what the story offered me. Valora and Grier have grown apart since childhood, when Valora was named Chosen One (seemingly confirmed when her Extraordinary talent, telekinesis, not only mimicked the last great hero of the world - the one murdered by archnemesis Erys - but was far more immediately useful in a fight than Grier's little portals) and their father dove head-first in to the stage parent role, hiring agents and publicists and milking the fame for every last drop of influence and secondhand glory... leaving Grier in the dust, overlooked and forgotten. Both seem to have reasonably legitimate reasons for the rift and why it can never be mended, as revealed in chapters that alternate their points of view. When Grier finally starts finding her own empowerment, the status quo of their lopsided relationship is shaken, threatening to make the rift a permanently unbridgeable canyon between the sisters. Even though they both vaguely feel saddened by the loss of something they feel they should have had, neither can figure out how to stop the momentum. Meanwhile, all signs point to the final confrontation between Erys and Valora coming sooner than anyone anticipated - not only the final proof or negation of the prophecy, but possibly the literal last chance for the twins to mend their relationship.
At some point, roughly just past the halfway point, the story stopped being as interesting. The plot started to feel less organic and spontaneous and more manipulated and forced, the back-and-forth between the characters no longer feeling natural. Backstory gets shoehorned in as Valora finally takes a tangible interest in her own fate and starts researching her enemy and her fallen predecessor, uncovering some secrets that came across as more than a little stale. Here and there, increasingly toward the end, were lines and sentences that were conspicuously on the nose, stock phrases and language that felt less like actual teenagers and more like an adult who had watched a lot of movies and TV shows starring teenage characters but had little to no recollection of what being a teen had actually been like as a lived experience. But what really tanked the rating was in the final act, the revelation of a betrayal and the arrival of Erys. The villainess, who was always a bit vague as a baddie, turns out to be a cheap cliche from the bottom of the stock bin, with paper-thin motivations and goals. The final battle is far too drawn out, and one final revelation just had me rolling my eyes... after which the battle kept going. And going. And, oh wait, it's still going... Yeah, it felt way too long, the tension long since drained, and by the time it ended I no longer cared who lived or who died so long as it finally, finally ended. Then an epilogue offered the wrap-up I really didn't need or even want, its chief benefit being that it lasted just long enough to take me to the end of the workday so I didn't have dead audio time.
There were times when Sister of the Chosen One lived up to the promise of its concept, but by the end I just couldn't care about either sister, let alone the world one of them was supposed to save.

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