Taken: By Erin Bowman

TAKEN

SUMMARY

There are no men in Claysoot.

There are boys—but every one of them vanishes at midnight on his eighteenth birthday. The ground shakes, the wind howls, a blinding light descends . . . and he's gone.

They call it the Heist.

Gray Weathersby's eighteenth birthday is mere months away, and he's prepared to meet his fate—until he finds a strange note from his mother and starts to question everything he's been raised to accept: the Council leaders and their obvious secrets, the Heist itself, and what lies beyond the Wall that surrounds Claysoot—a structure that no one can cross and survive.

Climbing the Wall is suicide, but what comes after the Heist could be worse. Should he sit back and wait to be taken—or risk everything on the hope of the other side?

REVIEW

Taken started off excellent. It introduced a protagonist that was likable and more than a little relatable in Gray. It then quickly established a question sure to intrigue readers, with the first Heist in the story occurring to Blaine, Gray’s brother. The Heist is a great idea by author, Erin Bowman. It adds a flair to the story that keeps the reader glued to their seats, at the very least just to find out the truth behind the Heist. Not only that, but Bowman does a fantastic job on the first section of the book making sure not to rush anything. She gives Gray time to grieve, time to fall in love, and time to discover small truths all without overly delaying the story or detracting from the readers enjoyment.

Unfortunately this pace doesn’t last throughout the entire book, and this is my biggest critique, for the second section of the book felt as if it jumped through time, rushing characters to act in ways that wouldn’t make sense and giving to much credit to Gray for his escape. Frank’s actions for treating Gray so special because he is a twin are never really addressed, nor is the great mystery of being a twin and why that attracts so much attention.

Other than that I really liked Taken. It had action, surprises, and a believable love situation. That actually is what I liked most about the book, how well thought out most of the characters actions and decisions were. Gray is not a military god overnight, nor does he know every aspect of every plan, he is instead a pawn in a much larger game being played around him. That is actually one of the reasons why the second section’s pacing bothered me so much, because unlike the rest of the story, some of the character’s actions didn’t make sense for the length of time Gray had been there.

All in all I really enjoyed the book. It had fun characters that were for the most part really well thought out and relatable, action, and an interesting plot. Definitely give it a try.

INFO

Publisher: HarperTeen

Published: April 16, 2013

Price: $17.99

Link to Buy: http://www.amazon.com/Taken-Erin-Bowman/dp/0062117262/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1366428149&sr=1-3&keywords=taken