Contender: The Chosen

Name: William Joseph
Price range: $

by Taran Matharu

Interest age: 12 to 15
Reading age: 11+

Published by Hodder Children’s Books, 2019

Adventure
Fantasy
Thriller

About this book

When Cade is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit, he’s sent away to reform school, where life is predictably grim and brutal. But this in no way prepares him for the day he opens his eyes to find himself on a narrow shelf of rock overlooking a deep canyon... with a razor-clawed, needle-toothed monster prowling below him.

At that moment, how he got there doesn’t seem as urgent a question as how he is going to escape being the creature’s next meal. Luckily, fear of a gruesome death hurries his escape but it soon becomes obvious that, wherever he is, something about the place is very wrong indeed. And his fight for survival is only just beginning.

This fantasy thriller has many elements of a video game so will appeal to gamers, as well as lovers of fantasy fiction.

Plenty of gore, and nail-biting jeopardy punctuate a mystery adventure that might just answer the questions about what happened to the Roman Legion of the Ninth, the crew of the Mary Celeste and those unfortunate enough to have disappeared from the Bermuda Triangle.

About the author

Taran was born in London in 1990 and found a passion for reading at a very early age. His love for stories developed into a desire to create his own, writing his first book at nine years old. Straight after graduating with a first-class degree in business administration, Taran was keen to explore a new avenue and get inside the publishing world, landing an internship in digital sales at Penguin Random House, from June to September 2013.

At 22, while taking time off to travel, Taran began to write The Summoner series as part of NaNoWriMo 2013. After posting the story on Wattpad.com, it received over 3 million reads in less than six months. After this was featured by NBC News, Taran decided to launch his professional writing career, and has never looked back.

Taran was the BookTrust Writer in Residence in 2017/18.