05/30/2022

After the collapse of a tyrannical government, a woman’s search for a missing girl leads her to uncover a chilling family secret in this sluggish dystopian mystery from bestseller Roth (Chosen Ones). The Delegation ruled the Seattle-Portland-South Vancouver megalopolis with an iron fist, keeping its citizens under constant surveillance using Insight, an ocular implant that tracks the wearer’s every action. Ten years after the fall of the Delegation, Sonya Kantor, a former poster girl for the regime who’s been imprisoned for the role she played in its propaganda machine, is given the opportunity to earn her freedom by locating a missing girl, Grace, who was stolen from her parents by the Delegation. As Sonya searches, she struggles to navigate the much-changed, post-Delegation world and, as her family’s dark past comes to light, she’s forced to reckon with the repercussions of her parents’ actions and confront her own shifting morals. The worldbuilding is fascinating, but Roth only scratches the surface, with more time spent developing Sonya’s life in prison than exploring the outside world or the ramifications of using Insight. This lack of depth extends to the protagonist; though readers will appreciate Sonya’s journey to self-awareness, her lack of interiority makes her difficult to invest in. This won’t go down as one of this talented author’s better works. Agent: Joanna Volpe, New Leaf Literary. (Oct.)

"If you enjoy worst-case scenarios involving technology and morality gone wrong, this novel gives you plenty to sink your teeth into. In addition to being alarming, it’s also a fun read." — New York Times Book Review

“Veronica Roth is getting better, which is good, because the future she sees is already partly here. Poster Girl returns the Chicago-based bestselling sci-fi author (Divergent) to our paranoid present, by relocating to a Pacific Northwest surveillance state with a heady Philip K. Dick-lite noir about how much privacy we are willing to give up.” — Chicago Tribune

“Divergent author Roth smartly envisions the repercussions of a government gone too far and the potential abuse of technology in the wrong hands.” — Washington Post

“The expert of dystopian worlds is back with yet another engrossing tale. . . Roth has done it again with her uncanny ability to create strong, inspiring characters and an eerie Big Brother theme.” — Shondaland

“Roth isn’t interested in easy victories or happily-ever-afters . . . The novel manages to be an elegant social commentary without resorting to preachiness . . . A wonderfully complex and nuanced book.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Highly recommended for readers of dystopian fiction, lovers of Philip K. Dick’s thought-police science fiction, and anyone who wants to see how far 'If you see something, say something' can be led astray.” — Library Journal (starred review)

"[A] page-turner." — People

“Divergent readers will find this compelling page-turner well worth reading.” — Buzzfeed

“Every now and then, I escape into novels set in eerie, dystopian worlds – and this one wowed me….A haunting page-turner!” — First for Women

“A taut futuristic thriller.” — Booklist

“An engaging and ultimately entertaining look at power and integrity, Poster Girl succeeds in balancing out expected dystopian tropes and characters with thoughtful and humane insights.” — Bookreporter.com

“Poster Girl is a captivating story full of twists and turns—and no easy answers. Veronica Roth's latest outing will draw you into its broken world, and make you think more deeply of our own. I couldn't put it down." — Karin Slaughter, New York Times bestselling author of Girl, Forgotten

“Roth weaves a tale of redemption and regret that kept me riveted and guessing until the last page.” — Hugh Howey, New York Times bestselling author of Wool and Across the Sand

“Veronica Roth's Poster Girl is a carbonated noir, a thrilling dystopian page turner, and a novel that pushes at the ideas of justice and compliance. Poster Girl is a rare book that is deeply entertaining while making readers consider deep moral issues.” — Megan Giddings, author of Lakewood and The Women Could Fly

“Someone is always watching, private secrets breed public power, and polite behavior and careful thoughts will not be enough to save everyone from their complicity. This is a smart, propulsive thriller set in a cleverly constructed world, full of tough questions I won’t soon forget.”  — Matt Bell, author of Appleseed

“This is a story of deep complexity, full of love and loss and hard-won hope.” — Marissa Levien, author of The World Gives Way

“An intelligent, raw, emotional dystopian thriller that asks deep questions about human nature, society, and freedom. With searing prose, deft world building, and a layered, propulsive plot that will keep you turning the pages, the supremely talented Veronica Roth is at the top of her game in Poster Girl. Don’t miss this!” — Lisa Unger, New York Times bestselling author of Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six

“Poster Girl cements Veronica Roth’s status as a superstar. It’s not just her prose, lyrical and precise. Not just her characters, complex and enchanting. It’s that she manages to keep her feet planted in the thunderous present while setting her narrative gaze on a looming Orwellian future. Not a word of this fine novel is dogmatic or reductive as Sonja Kantor, onetime true believer, peels back the pristine façade of her life’s ideology to reveal the churning human chaos beneath. Her story is timeless in all the best ways, as contoured and mysterious as the poster girl herself.”  — Gregg Hurwitz, #1 International bestselling author of the Orphan X series

“A near-future dystopic meditation on guilt, surveillance, and what comes after the revolution. . . Roth should be highly credited for taking the coldly functional state dystopia formula (made famous by novels such as 1984 and Philip K. Dick’s work, among others) and turning it into something uniquely her own, as well as doing it in a way that feels both topical and timeless.” — Lightspeed Magazine

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.” 

A hugely imagined, twisty, turning tale that leads through the labyrinths of magic and war to the center of the heart.

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.

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.

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.

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.” 

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.” 

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.

★ 07/01/2022

Sonya Kantor, formerly the face of the totalitarian regime that once ruled the Seattle-Portland megacity, has been relegated to a locked ghetto with all of that dictatorship's remaining adherents. The Delegation controlled the behavior of everyone who lived under its all-seeing eye, but Sonya and her family were true believers. Sentenced to life imprisonment, all she believes in now is survival. When an enemy offers her a chance at freedom if she investigates the disappearance of one young girl, she agrees, but doing so will expose the true nature of her beliefs, her family, and her own complicity in crimes that neither she nor the current administration want to see the light of day. While the actions of surveillance states are chilling, it's Sonya's journey that carries the reader through this walk into dark places, as the deeper she looks into the mystery, the more is revealed about her and her family's crimes. VERDICT Roth's (Chosen Ones) latest is highly recommended for readers of dystopian fiction, lovers of Philip K. Dick's thought-police science fiction, and anyone who wants to see how far "If you see something, say something" can be led astray.—Marlene Harris

★ 2022-07-27
Ten years after a sinister government collapsed, a young woman searches for a girl who was kidnapped by that regime.

For most people, life under the Delegation meant oppressive surveillance by the Insight, a mandatory biotech implant that monitored their every move and rewarded or punished them based on a strict code of conduct. But Sonya Kantor, whose father was an important Delegation official, reveled in perfecting her behavior based on the Delegation’s requirements, even posing for a propaganda poster. When the Delegation is replaced by the Triumverate, a supposedly humane new democracy, Sonya and all the other remaining Delegation loyalists are locked away in the Aperture—a walled-off section of the city where people aren’t locked in cells but don't have much in the way of creature comforts, either. One day, 10 years after the uprising, an old friend comes to find Sonya and offers her a deal from the Triumverate: If she can find a girl who was kidnapped by the Delegation, she'll be allowed to move out of the Aperture and rejoin society. One could imagine a dystopian novel set during the uprising that toppled the Delegation in which someone like Sonya is a villain, righteously imprisoned when a new government is formed. But Roth isn’t interested in easy victories or happily-ever-afters. Instead, Sonya grapples with the inevitable failure of even the most optimistic governments, the risk that exciting and helpful new technologies can be used for evil, and the responsibility she still bears for who she was and what she did during the Delegation’s heyday. The novel manages to be an elegant social commentary without resorting to preachiness, and even the most cynical readers will be as surprised as Sonya when they reach Roth’s big reveals about the depths of the Delegation’s depravity.

A wonderfully complex and nuanced book, perfect for readers who grew up on dystopian YA.