Taken by Erin Bowman

Release Date: Out now!

Publisher: HarperTeen

Pages: 352pgs

The Story

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?

The Review

Don't get me wrong here. I really wanted to love this one and I would given it close to four or even four and half stars considering I loved the first half of the book. After all, the storyline and what it all entailed had something truly great going for it as reminded me of Patrick Ness's Chaos Walking trilogy for a moment or two. However, once I reached the halfway point of the book, the book itself kind of lost me and in the end made it very hard for me to connect with the rest of the tale. It wasn't that bad, but it just wasn't a very likable book after that halfway point.

TAKEN started off with a very great premise. There was just something so mysterious and exciting about boys disappearing after their eighteenth birthday and with everyone having little clue as to what happens next . . . it was just super creepy and yet such a great start to a book, you know? But personally, what ruined this book the most and what I thought brought everything down in the fun factor for me was the romance part. I get romance has to be introduced at some point or another, but I found both of the love interests (one that comes a little too early and one that comes a little too late in the book and yet too quickly as well) were not likable at all. One of the girls I gradually began to like but as soon as she fades into the background and once another girl came into the picture . . . it just ruined the book completely and sidetracked me with this great potential storyline. It made me feel uneasy to say the least and I wasn't a big fan of it I'm afraid.

In terms of the main character, Gray, I liked him in the beginning like I did with the storyline itself. He was a bit of smart-ass and a little bit 'headstrong' perhaps, but on a whole I liked him a lot as a character. But once again - and as I mentioned before - the whole romance thing kind of interfered with my liking of Gray. I thought here is a guy who can actually stick with only one girl, but here's the kicker for me . . . he falls in love way too quickly (which I hate) and his connection to these two girls just didn't seem realistic enough for me nor was there any chemistry to begin with. I just didn't believe in it and that's hard when you're trying to like the main character as well as the storyline, so it's a big disappointment on my part.

Overall, while I'm still struggling to make a decision as to whether I should continue with this series or not, but on a whole I thought it had a great concept but just wasn't executed in the way I wanted. But TAKEN offers a lot of cool things including an interesting plot, a diverse of characters and some unexpected plot twists along the way, so if that sounds like you're kind of thing then you'll definitely love this book!

The Rating

2/5 stars