Monday, April 22, 2013

Daisy Reviews Taken by Erin Bowman


Title/Author: Taken (Taken #1) by Erin Bowman
Publisher/Date published: HarperTeen, April 16th 2013
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley

Goodreads 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?

So Taken actually made it onto two of my Top Ten Tuesday lists and I was so wanting to love this book! I didn't end up loving it, but it was pretty interesting.

I love dystopians and I love reading from a male point of view every once in a while, it's nice to switch things up a bit. So Taken started off pretty good for me. I liked seeing Claysoot through Gray's eyes and I really liked how curious he was and that he was smart enough to figure it all out. But if he'd been a sheep we probably wouldn't have had a book centered around him ;)
I never fully connected to Gray and I never felt like I really knew him. Maybe it's because of this that I wasn't fully invested in his story.

I actually liked Bree a whole lot better, though I didn't get a clear reading on her either. I'd love to know more of her background and what life was like for her before she met Gray. There are all these hidden depths in this story that stay hidden, unfortunately. I loved the bond between Gray and Blaine, even though it's just the two of them since their mother died, they are a family and I like that.

It's hard to talk about the plot without giving too much away, but well, let's say I wasn't all that surprised when I found out what was behind the Heist. It's a really interesting concept, but I feel like it's been done before. There were some other twists and turns that took me by surprise a bit, in a good way, so that sorta made up for it. There's some creepy stuff going on that I'm sure we'll learn more about in the sequel!

So I haven't told you about the romance part yet. And maybe that is because it didn't really work for me so much. Gray is pretty much an ass when it comes to girls and I was kinda wondering what either girl saw in him. The love triangle really annoyed me, mostly at the end though when Gray was being a major douche and I just wanted to hit him. Ugh, boys!

Anyway, I sound kinda negative, though I did enjoy this book, it's actionpacked and I read it in no time at all. There were just some things that bugged me and I thought the plot could have been developed a bit more. From the hints of it, I guess there's some serious worldbuilding behind Taken and I really hope Erin Bowman shows us all she's thought up in the next book, cause I'd like a little more background and exploring of this world.

My rating: 3,5 stars

5 comments:

  1. I haven't seen many great reviews for this one, and it sounds like something that I've seen in way too many books already. This book sounded really interesting to me originally but not being able to connect with the MC really brings it down for me. Thanks for the honest review!

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  2. Yeah, I found I was pretty underwhelmed by this one. I didn't hate it but I didn't love it. It just didn't stand out in any way for me unfortunately.

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  3. My review echoed a lot of these same concerns. The romance felt forced and everything just felt like it had been done before. Very disappointing.

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  4. I found this one oddly compelling even though I never really connected with any element (not the characters, the plot, the romance, the setting). I love the cover so much but the contents just didn't really do anything for me.

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  5. I've not had a chance to read this yet, but I really want to because the premise is great and that cover is gorgeous (so I'm superficial, sue me). Thank you for the honest review! It'll probably help if I don't go into this with heightened expectations from all the hype - it might even help me appreciate it more!

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