Lesley Glaister writes dark stories, really dark stories yet they are also a joy to read. I've just been struggling to find the words to describe how and why this is so without diminishing their darkness but have spotted this line by Hilary Mantel on the back cover so I will hand over to Hilary to do my work for me...

"Frightening yet eerily beautiful, her novels are fresh, inventive and deeply-felt!"

Thank you, Hilary! I always really feel for the characters in a Glaister novel and the character who initially appears to be central to Chosen was particularly easy to empathise with. Dodie is a young mum whose teenage brother has disappeared after the death of their difficult mother. When it is apparent that Seth is staying in a religious sect she travels to America to bring him home but finds that members of the sect have their own reasons for wanting her to stay.

Just when things are looking particularly sinister, the book switches to the back story of Dodie's mother and aunt. It is not immediately apparently why, though I quickly became engaged with the story of the two neglected girls in the 1960s, who become caught up in a bohemien lifestyle they are too young to understand. Connections are then made between the stories which is at first satisfying and then terrifying as the reader starts to see where things are heading.

Towards the end of the book, I started considering what rating I would give it. I thought around 4.5 depending on how it ended. I loved the ending (which was actually quite uplifting without being a cop-out) so I gave it five stars! ( )

Read the review on my blog. ( )