Hello, readers! Today is July 31st - do you know what that means? Yes, it does mean that our summer reading program for 2024 is coming to a close, but I am talking about it being Harry Potter’s birthday! You know, “The Boy Who Lived”, “the chosen one”, the only one who can defeat He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named? Yes? No? Maybe so?
Well regardless, I want to take one last summer reading adventure with you all: Adventures in Being the “Chosen One”.
Harry Potter is not the original “Chosen One”. I couldn’t even imagine what character that might have been. King Arthur? Gilgamesh? Hercules? Heroes (and Heroines) born of greatness with great powers and great futures have dazzled readers and storytellers for centuries! People get starry-eyed when words like destiny and fate get tossed around. It’s the idea that something great is out there waiting for you, you just need a chance to prove yourself worthy. We have all been there at some point or another in our lives. Harry Potter wasn’t the first chosen one and he certainly won’t be the last, but he did make a huge impression and impact on a generation of readers like myself.
So what creates a “Chosen One”? What are the requirements or characteristics that define such a person? Are they always heroes? No. But the ones that stick out to us the most tend to be. There is something to be said about the brave hero that champions the weak.
Urban Dictionary defines “Chosen One” in a few different ways:
- “A singular person, who is chosen, usually for some special world-saving destiny.”
- “This individual, the "Chosen One" is the sole person chosen by destiny to stop an impending disaster that threatens all life, save the world from a super villian, stop corruption, etc.”
- “The chosen one is the only person that can save the planet from evil destruction”
Wikipedia defines it as “a narrative trope where one character, usually the protagonist, is framed as the inevitable hero or antihero of the story, as a result of destiny, unique gifts, and/or special lineage.”
There are many different kinds of chosen heroes and many different ways to be labeled as chosen. Some different ways of becoming the “Chosen One”:
- a villain marks you as his adversary
- your name is drawn out of a cup
- you are born to godly parents
- a prophecy was told about you or your birth
- you exhibit a special unique power no one else has
- you discover a dragon egg and it chooses you as its rider
- you kill a giant wolf fae and become a prisoner to a high lord
However a character is chosen, there is always guaranteed to be an adventure waiting to happen! Check out the list below for some awesome recommendations!
Carry On by Rainbow Rowell
Simon Snow is the worst Chosen One who's ever been chosen.
That's what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he's probably right.
Half the time, Simon can't even make his wand work, and the other half, he starts something on fire. His mentor's avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there's a magic-eating monster running around, wearing Simon's face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here — it's their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon's infuriating nemesis didn't even bother to show up.
Carry On - The Rise and Fall of Simon Snow is a ghost story, a love story and a mystery. It has just as much kissing and talking as you'd expect from a Rainbow Rowell story - but far, far more monsters.
Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
The story of a boy who embarks on a dangerous quest in order to fulfill his destiny -- and find his father -- in a strange world beneath New York City.
When Gregor falls through a grate in the laundry room of his apartment building, he hurtles into the dark Underland, where spiders, rats, cockroaches coexist uneasily with humans. This world is on the brink of war, and Gregor's arrival is no accident. A prophecy foretells that Gregor has a role to play in the Underland's uncertain future. Gregor wants no part of it -- until he realizes it's the only way to solve the mystery of his father's disappearance. Reluctantly, Gregor embarks on a dangerous adventure that will change both him and the Underland forever.
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker Chan
In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness…
In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.
When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother's identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.
After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu uses the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother's abandoned greatness.
Mulan meets The Song of Achilles; an accomplished, poetic debut of war and destiny, sweeping across an epic alternate China.
That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming
Spice trader Cinnamon's quiet life is turned upside down when she ends up on a quest with a fiery demon in this irreverently quirky rom-com fantasy that is sweet, steamy, and funny as hell—perfect for fans of Legends & Lattes and The Dragon's Bride.
All she wanted to do was live her life in peace--maybe get a cat, expand the family spice farm. Really, anything that didn't involve going on an adventure where an orc might rip her face off. But they say the Goddess has favorite, and if so, Cin is clearly not one of them...
After saving the demon Fallon in a wine-drunk stupor, all Fallon wants to do is kill an evil witch enslaving his people. And, who can blame him? But he's dragging Cinnamon along for the ride. On the bright side, at least he keeps burning off his shirt.