Poster Girl - by Veronica Roth

Book Synopsis

For fans of Anthony Marra and Lauren Beukes, #1 New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth tells the story of a woman's desperate search for a missing girl after the collapse of the oppressive dystopian regime--and the dark secrets about her family and community she uncovers along the way.

WHAT'S RIGHT IS RIGHT.

Sonya Kantor knows this slogan--she lived by it for most of her life. For decades, everyone in the Seattle-Portland megalopolis lived under it, as well as constant surveillance in the form of the Insight, an ocular implant that tracked every word and every action, rewarding or punishing by a rigid moral code set forth by the Delegation.

Then there was a revolution. The Delegation fell. Its most valuable members were locked in the Aperture, a prison on the outskirts of the city. And everyone else, now free from the Insight's monitoring, went on with their lives.

Sonya, former poster girl for the Delegation, has been imprisoned for ten years when an old enemy comes to her with a deal: find a missing girl who was stolen from her parents by the old regime, and earn her freedom. The path Sonya takes to find the child will lead her through an unfamiliar, crooked post-Delegation world where she finds herself digging deeper into the past--and her family's dark secrets--than she ever wanted to.

With razor sharp prose, Poster Girl is a haunting dystopian mystery that explores the expanding role of surveillance on society--an inescapable reality that we welcome all too easily.

Review Quotes

"Roth (The End and Other Beginnings: Stories from the Future (2019), etc.) made her name by writing best-selling YA action/adventure novels like the Divergent series, so it makes sense that she can so expertly deconstruct those 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 as Roth takes recognizable and beloved teen-hero types and explores what might happen to them as adults. Roth makes a bold entrance to adult fantasy." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) on Chosen Ones

"Roth's successful adult debut (following the bestselling YA Divergent series) puts the popular trop of the teenage 'chosen one" under the microscope and delves into both the societal impacts of young shoulders carrying the weight of the world and the psychological strains of such a responsibility...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 on Chosen Ones

"A hugely imagined, twisty, turning tale that leads through the labyrinths of magic and war to the center of the heart." -- Diana Gabaldon, author of Go Tell the Bees That I am Gone from the New York Times best-selling Outlander series, on Chosen Ones

"With Chosen Ones, Veronica Roth keeps you guessing: playing with perception, multiverse theory, and the struggles that go along with being 'chosen' to save the world . . . She's created a universe that you never want to leave." -- Amber Benson, author of The Witches of Echo Park

"With Chosen Ones, Veronica Roth has pulled off a virtuoso performance, conjuring a stunning thriller/fantasy/sci-fi chimera like nothing I've read before, a story of ex-heroes struggling with the trauma of their past, what it means to have once saved the world, and the dark side of destiny." -- Blake Crouch, New York Times best-selling author of Recursion

"Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth is the cure for all those humdrum 'one true savior' narratives. This dark, complex novel rocked my heart and left me with a renewed sense that saving the world is a job that never ends. Roth's version of magic is as flawed and fascinating as her characters, and her story keeps you guessing until the wild conclusion. You'll never look at fantasy heroes the same way again." -- Charlie Jane Anders, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of The City in the Middle of the Night

"Roth somehow manages to make universe-building look easy. She sets it all up--world, characters, premise--so smoothly that you hardly notice until you're a hundred pages in and hurtling down the tracks. An insightful exploration of desire and ambition that also touches on broader societal topics, including celebrity, social media, trauma, and recovery. A thought-provoking novel with ample emotion and a sense of playfulness with form. And one more thing: when the inevitable adaptation of Chosen Ones hits the screen someday, I just hope it captures Roth's fascinating and original theory of magic." -- Charles Yu, author of Interior Chinatown