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'Taken'

Review by Louella Moreland

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[July 31, 2013]  "Taken," by Erin Bowman, Harper Teen, 2013, 380 pages, ages 14 and up

Erin Bowman has crafted quite a page-turner with her novel "Taken." Although sprinkled with some cursing and very sexual innuendo, it is the action that propels the story. Set in a post-war world, one group of military people, led by a man named Frank, has contrived experimental communities.

Readers are introduced to the village of Claysoot on the eve of a Heist. All boys are mysteriously "taken" from the community at the dawn of their 18th birthdays. No one knows where they go, no one knows why. Some boys have become so frightened of their future when about to be taken that they have climbed the Wall that surrounds the village, only to be returned burned beyond recognition the next morning. There have been no exceptions to the Heists ... until now.

Gray Weathersby has just lost his brother, Blaine, to the Heist. He finds his life devoid of meaning. Even though he has a secret crush on Emma, the daughter of the village healer, he has less than a year before he, too, will be taken. Gray can see no reason to form an attachment that will only leave Emma alone and mourning when he is gone. However, Gray has trouble just accepting his fate, and after finding half a letter his deceased mother left to his brother, he begins to ask even more questions. Could he in fact be Blaine's twin, not a younger brother? Could he in fact have cheated the Heist? That would change everything he had been taught his entire life.

Gray decides to test his theory rather dramatically. If he should have been taken and was not, perhaps he can also survive climbing the Wall to see if he can live outside the confines of the village. What he had not planned on was Emma following him.

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Instead of the answers to the questions Gray and Emma are searching for, they end up with many more questions about the world they find outside. They encounter modern technologies for the first time in the city of Taem, where the leader, named Frank, is engaged in hunting down Rebel forces that want to topple his regime. This is the only part of the novel that does not meld well in the premise, as they both figure out the uses of these marvels too quickly to be believable.

As Gray encounters an execution in the town square, he begins to believe Frank's answers are not the truth, and the Rebels are the ones who are the victims. Frank seems quite interested in Gray after learning that he is a twin. As Gray learns more about the Rebels and experiments of Harvey Maldoon, the man Frank wants hunted down at all costs, he knows he must now escape the city of Taem as he had once escaped from Claysoot.

Although the novel comes to a satisfying conclusion, its ending is open enough to be the beginning of a series. With unanswered questions about the other experimental communities and the love triangle of Gray, Emma and a young Rebel fighter named Bree, readers will be on the lookout for another section of the "Taken" story.

Come browse the extensive young adult collection at the Lincoln Public Library, 725 Pekin St., for "Taken" and other stories of this genre.

[Text from file received from Louella Moreland, Lincoln Public Library District]

Ms. Lou's blog: lincolnpubliclibraryupdates.blogspot.com

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