Taken by Erin Bowman
3.5/5 stars
HarperTeen, 2013
360 pages
YA Dystopia Science-Fiction
Source: Received an ARC through Amazon Vine in exchange for an honest review.
This book grabbed my attention first with its rainbow-cover. I love the way the covers bleed into each other. Then it cemented my attention with its premise about a town with no men-only boys as males are taken on their eighteenth birthday in "the heist." This raised a lot of questions for me, starting with wondering how did this begin and ending with "does that mean all the children in this town are fathered by males under 18?" I cannot reveal the answer to the first nor to any of the others in my mind but I can answer the last one with a simple "yes." There is a system to ensure the survival of this town and it revolves around males under the age of eighteen fathering children.
I have to say that although this book as a whole wasn't a winner for me, I must applaud HarperTeen for continually publishing some of the most absorbing books. When I pick up one of their books, I know that I probably won't be putting it down until I'm done and that was certainly the case here. I kept trying to go do other things but finding myself returning to Taken.
I can't reveal too much of the plot without heading into spoiler territory. But I can share that our narrator is Gray, the impulsive younger brother of the adored Blaine, whose eighteenth birthday is the day the story opens. Once Blaine is "heisted," Gray starts digging into his town's history and makes a crazy decision that leads to the rest of the events of this book. There's some romance, some would-be science (cannot comment on its plausibility although I suspect it is not very), and a lot of mystery and action.
Overall: I don't know that this was entirely the read for me and I'm not decided on continuing with the series but I'm sure many will find the writing engaging and be completely absorbed in this world.
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