The Chosen (L.J. Smith novel)

The Chosen is the fifth novel in the Night World series written by L. J. Smith. It was first published on February 1, 1997 by Simon Pulse. Since its release, it has been reprinted several times due to its cult status amongst Smith's fans.

Plot summary

This book begins with an introduction to the central protagonist, Rashel Jordan. Newly turned 5 Rashel is introduced to the Night World with the murders of her mother and her childhood friend Timmy who she was "a whole month older than" by an unknown vampire, who is later revealed to be Hunter Redfern, a respected lamia elder. This traumatizing event is offered as the motivation behind Rashel's decision as a 17-year-old to hunt and kill vampires. In the opening chapters the reader is offered an insight into her mind as she goes about her business after dark in Boston.

Rashel's eventual love interest is also introduced at an early stage in the book. John Quinn, or 'Quinn' as he is known, is described in a melancholy state, reminiscing on his rebirth as a vampire and his early love, Dove Redfern. Similar to Rashel's inset hatred of vampires, Quinn is presented as hating humans due to the murder of Dove at the hands of his father.

In this manner, the two central protagonists are provided with motivation to hate each other, though we suspect this hatred will be short lived.

Quinn is discovered and captured by a group of vampire hunters and imprisoned in a cellar. Rashel, who numbers among the group, takes pity on him, and encourages her fellow vampire hunters to continue the hunt while she stands guard over the prisoner. She suspects that the others means to torture him, and intends to kill him honorably. Before Rashel can do this, Quinn engages her in conversation. Rashel finds herself attracted to the vampire and allows him to break free of his constraints. The two fight, however upon touching they find themselves drawn to each other and seem to see into each other's souls . Before Quinn can remove the ninja-type mask that Rashel wears, the other vampire hunters return and the couple are broken up as Quinn is forced to flee.

When Rashel returns to the cellar area to search for vampires, she is just in time to rescue a human girl, Daphne, who has been captured by vampires and just managed to escape. With Daphne's help, Rashel goes to a club where vampires, including Quinn, are capturing human girls for the slave trade. Her plan is to be captured herself so she can infiltrate a vampire enclave; the plan works, but on the island enclave, Rashel learns that the girls are not to be normal slaves, but will be drained dry in a Bloodfeast; something illegal in the Night World.

Escaping with the girls to the Warf, Rashel, masquerading as a girl called Shelly, is saved from an angry werewolf guard by Quinn, who does not know her true identity as the girl in the cellar first, but later connects the two instances after Rashel fights him and defeats him. Choosing not to kill him, Rashel knocks Quinn out and returns to the house to kill the vampires who were going to participate in the Bloodfeast. Quinn recovers quickly and captures Rashel. Always a stickler to the rules, Quinn tells Rashel he is going to make her a vampire so that they can be together without breaking the Night World law that states a Night Worlder can not fall in love with a human. Despite Rashel proclaiming that she would stake herself as soon as she woke up as a vampire, he bites her anyways, sure that she'll change her mind once he turns her. However, when he drinks from her the Soulmate Principle takes over and their minds merge. Quinn is then able to see that Rashel hates vampires because of the one that killed her mother. Now understanding what drives her, he decides to accept her the way she is and tries to help her stop the Bloodfeast.

When they confront the other vampires, they learn that Hunter Redfern is the one who staged the Bloodfeast, and Rashel recognizes him as the one who killed her mother. Cruel as ever, Hunter taunts Rashel by revealing her childhood friend: Timmy, still exactly the same as he was the last time Rashel saw him, a four-year-old child, now a made vampire, turned presumably by Hunter. Quinn and Rashel face off against Hunter and the vampires from the Bloodfeast. As they prepare to fight, Nyala, a fellow vampire hunter who has gone a bit insane due to the death of her sister and discovering about the Night World, appears with a burning gasoline bottle. Because the house is wood, it is a death trap for vampires, and they flee as Nyala sets the house on fire. Quinn and Rashel escape with Timmy, whom she refuses to leave behind. As soon as they get out, Rashel wants to go back and rescue Nyala who is still in the burning house. Quinn goes instead to Rashel's dismay, but returns alive with Nyala in tow but passed out. While she was waiting for Quinn, Timmy crankily asks her why she saved him, and with tears in her eyes she replies, "Because my mom told me to take care of you." Her mother had asked that of her at the beginning of the book. After Quinn comes out, they leave on Hunter's yacht, the other girls already having left. Rashel knows the place for them now is Circle Daybreak with the "damned Daybreakers," a group consisting of Night People and humans who are trying to work together to make peace among the Night World and the human world.

Characters

• Rashel Jordan is a seventeen-year-old beauty and has green eyes and long straight black hair. At age five, Rashel witnessed her childhood best friend, 4 year old Timmy, being bitten (she thought killed) and her mother killed by a vampire from whom she managed to escape, but which also cost the life of her aunt, her last living relative. Alone and placed into foster care, she was determined to get revenge and began to learn everything she could about vampires and the Night World. By twelve years old, she had killed her first vampire and from then made a name for herself among vampire hunters and Night People alike as 'the Cat' by killing many vampires - more than any other vampire hunter. After every vampire she kills, she utters her ritual sentence, "This kitten has claws." in memory of her mother who used to call her kitten, while leaving five cat-like claw scratches on her victim's forehead as her signature mark.
• John Quinn is physically eighteen years old and is described as having black hair and bottomless black eyes. Born in the sixteenth century in Charlestown, Boston, John Quinn was a human who grew up in a religious environment due to his father being a minister. However, after falling in love with Dove, the daughter of a respected man called Hunter Redfern who was in fact a vampire, Quinn was unwillingly turned into one in order to marry her. Upon waking and realizing what has been done to him, Quinn runs to his father for help. However, this proves to be a fatal mistake. Convinced his son has become a monster, Quinn's father tries to kill him, but ends up staking Dove instead. Following these events, Quinn bore a hatred towards humans and while he never married into the Redfern family, he was allowed to become Hunter's heir. Over the centuries, he became known for his ruthlessness and is considered as one of the most dangerous vampires in all Night World. Towards the end of the story he falls for Rashel despite that he once hated humans because of his father, and so he and Rashel decide to join the Daybreakers.
• Hunter Redfern is a lamia vampire with blood-red hair and golden eyes and appears to be in his late twenties but is in fact more than five hundred years old. As the patriarch of the Redfern clan -the most important vampire family- and leader of all vampires, he represents them on the Night World Council. He changed Quinn into a vampire after the latter asked him for one of his daughter's hand, Dove. It is revealed near the end of the book that Hunter was the vampire who killed Rashel's mother and was responsible for illegally holding the Bloodfeast.
• Dove Redfern is described as being brown-haired and of gentle nature. She was one of Hunter Redfern's daughters, and the one with whom Quinn fell in love and wanted to marry. Dove died shortly after Quinn's transformation, a stake pierced through the heart by Quinn's father.
• Lily Redfern is a striking lamia vampire with dark hair, very pale skin, and hawklike eyes the color of amber or topaz. She is Hunter Redfern's second eldest daughter, and is described as being 'evil' by Quinn and having a cold personality. She's one of the vampires who runs The Crypt and helps set up the slave trade and Bloodfeast.
• Timmy is Rashel's childhood best friend, whom she believed had died. Many readers mistakenly believe him to be Rashel's younger brother but the original 1997 published copy of The Chosen clearly states that he was only her friend that accompanied Rashel and her mother that fateful day that they were attacked. He is described as having silky black hair and wide blue eyes. He was exactly one month younger than Rashel (thereby proving he couldn't be her younger brother) when he was fed off of and his body taken by a vampire on Rashel's fifth birthday party at a carnival. Since then, Rashel thought Timmy was dead until she meets him again twelve years later and finds out that he's been changed into a vampire. Timmy is thought to appear in Secret Vampire, the first book in the series, at Thierry Decourdres party.
• Daphne Childs is a slender fashionable high school girl with blond hair and deep cornflower blue eyes. Living in a family with many children, her parents don't notice when she disappears - leaving her free to go to The Crypt, an underground club run secretly by vampires and frequented mostly by runaway human teenagers. She was among those who got kidnapped by the vampires for the Bloodfeast but managed to escape with the help of Rashel.
• Vicky is a self-confident and quick-tempered girl with brown hair and pale blue eyes. She used to be the leader of a group of vampire hunters on the south shore but is now second-in-command to Elliot, the leader of the Lancers which is one of the most successful organizations of vampire hunters on the East Coast. As a vampire hunter, Vicky often makes use of torture when dealing with vampires she'd caught.
• Nyala is a girl with dark eyes and skin like cocoa, who has recently joined the Lancers. She discovered about the existence of the Night World after her sister was killed by a vampire a month ago. Still distraught, Nyala is described as being not quite stable but shows a savage determination to avenge her sister's death.

Themes

The novel expands upon the central idea of 'forbidden love', a recurring theme in the work of the author, L. J. Smith. Although Rashel feels a strong connection with Quinn, her personal history and her own experiences as a vampire hunter prevent her from acknowledging these feelings. Likewise, Quinn begins to doubt his lifestyle and hatred of humans. While Rashel and her "friend" Daphne are at a house about to be mauled to death by newborn vampires, Quinn finds it within himself to go back for the Rashel's sake; he tells her that's the reason he came back.

Character notes

Quinn features as a minor character in the previous Night World novel, Daughters of Darkness, while Lily appears as a minor character in the subsequent Night World novel Huntress. Timmy makes a minor appearance in the previous Night World novel, Secret Vampire. He is the small vampire that Poppy notices at Thierry's place. In addition, many readers mistakenly believe Timmy to be Rashel's brother due to their similar appearance. However, it is clearly stated that they are only friends and not related. Quinn and Rashel play an important role in L.J. Smith's short story Thicker Than Water, found on her website. The story also reveals a secret of Rashel's past.