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The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer meets The Fifth Wave in this chilling and explosive new series from author Kimberly Derting. The last thing Kyra Agnew remembers is a flash of bright light. She awakes to discover that five whole years have passed. Everyone in her life has moved on--her parents are divorced, her boyfriend is in college and dating her best friend--but Kyra's still the sixteen-year-old she was when she vanished. She finds herself drawn to Tyler, her boyfriend's kid brother, despite her best efforts to ignore this growing attraction. In order to find out the truth, the two of them decide to retrace her steps from that fateful night. They discover that there are others who have been "taken," just like Kyra. But Kyra is the first person to have been returned past the forty-eight-hour taken mark. With a determined secret government agency after her, Kyra desperately tries to find an explanation and reclaim the life she once had . . . but what if the life she wants back is not her own?… (more)
User reviews
Quick & Dirty: The Taking is a pulse-racing, action packed story of a girl who doesn’t know what to believe. A stunning book and something I will definitely check out the sequel for!
Opening Sentence: We killed them.
The Review:
Kyla is an ordinary girl, with
Wow! Wow, wow, wow. I started this at about 4, took a 3 hour break for family movie night at 5, and then finished at 9. The first part was okay, and the chapters kept me hooked, but it wasn’t very exciting until you reach halfway. Then you are constantly gasping and praying and hoping and your feelings are set on fire.
Kyla’s feelings of not belonging are so wonderfully illustrated. Always there is a constant undercurrent of how everything has changed. The Husband, her mom’s new child, her father’s smell of liquor on his breath, everything reminds her of the life she lost. Though the plotline could have proved very confusing, information is given to you in a crystal clear way.
Tyler is a perfect guy — determined, cheesy, but believing and loyal. Austin had been a talker, but Tyler is a listener. Austin had forgotten Kyla for Cat, but Tyler still remembers his crush from five years ago. I think Kyla and Tyler’s relationship moved a slightest bit fast, but the pacing of the book as a whole was fine, and so it didn’t matter much to me. I loved Tyler, and while I appreciated Austin at the beginning, his interactions with Kyra after she is returned prove he is a first class jerk.
I am so excited for the second book, I can’t even tell you. Again, the farther half of this book was basically perfection. The first half, good, but the second just had me enthralled. If the whole book had me as engaged as the second part, it would be an a thousand star review. Sadly, I’m only giving it four stars because part one would be three and part two six, so I’m averaging it out. Everyone who loves science fiction should check this out as soon as it is released. You. Will. Not. Regret. It.
The Taking is an engaging, exciting, pulse-racing novel. If you can’t get through part one, fight through it (although part one is not bad at all, just not as good as the second). This is such a unique novel. The cover isn’t very exciting, but the content is great. Pacing is wonderful, romance is fabulous, story was told so well. Go now and pre-order it, okay? Okay. Happy reading!
Notable Scene:
But I stopped, unable to speak or think or breathe the moment I saw it…
…them.
So very many of them.
It was like looking at a constellation.
A radiant, sparkling, living constellation.
“Oh my god…” I covered my mouth with both hands and gasped between my fingers. Tears blurred the lights, blending and distorting them until they were one giant mass in my eyes. “They’re so . . . so beautiful.”
Simon looked at me, confused. He lowered the knife and let go of his sleeve as he turned to see what I had. To know what I knew.
That we’d been in the wrong place all along.
“Fireflies.” He breathed.
FTC Advisory: HarperTeen provided me with a copy of The Taking. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review
I connected with Kyra right away because she just seemed like a normal person. Given, she is a great pitcher and I am not athletic but its like living that dream without actually doing it. She is arguing with her dad when she sees a bright light and then the next thing she knows she wakes and everyone else has aged five years and moved on, but she doesn't realize what happens.
There was a nice hint at romance in the beginning, but they are thrown for a loop when she is five years younger all of the sudden and he is in college... It is an awkward situation with her and Austin especially since they were friends forever and then romantic and living across the street she also knew his family. The romance that developed five years later was a surprise in some aspects because of who it was, but I loved how it developed. Their conversations, his romantic gestures--drawings, texts, convos, etc.
The world building was pretty good, and although I was still left with questions, it was something that Kyra didn't know or even her dad who had been doing research the whole time she was gone. I am hoping that the next books will give more enlightenment on what the purpose of the Takings are and the technicallities of who gets returned and who doesn't. I did like the slow unfolding of Kyra and how she'd changed. I appreciated how Tyler believed her and that he cared for her all the same.
There were some pretty big twists in this, but looking back it was foreshadowed all along. It was pretty heartbreaking but I guess also necessary, although I'll admit I was thinking that Kyra would play a bigger role, but it makes sense for continuing on that it happened the way it was written.
The ending left me wanting more and wishing that I already had the next book. It semi wrapped things up, but it still left at a pretty dramatic moment, though it did give me some hope and a bit of lasting power until I can get the next one.
Bottom Line: Great premise, main character with a sweet romance.
However, before one rushes to judgment, Ms. Derting never explicitly states that the force behind the bright lights and those taken and returned truly are aliens. A reader may believe just that based on theories passed around throughout the story. However, Kyra never discovers the truth, and so readers can only speculate on what that truth is.
Sure, there are some faults with the story outside of the possibility of alien abduction. The love story is odd and slightly unnecessary. There is a sweetness to it that is lovely to watch unfold, and the instant attraction and heat make for a pleasant distraction. However, their relationship does nothing to further the story. Every action of support Tyler takes for Kyra could easily happen among friends and not young lovers. That being said, this is the first book in a series. There could be a very important reason that Kyra and Tyler’s relationship has to be so serious almost instantaneously that will reveal itself in future books. In fact, one can hope that this is the case. Otherwise, it becomes just another example of a female heroine that must have a male by her side for protection.
The action, however, is quite exciting, albeit a little theatrical. It is fast-paced and does not leave much time for the plot to bog down into the truly absurd. The romantic elements may be a stretch, but everything that happens to Kyra upon her return fits with the few questions to which readers have answers. If readers can accept the entire premise of the story, they will have no problems delving into the individual scenes and situations Kyra and Tyler face and ignoring the more melodramatic moments.
As preposterous as the idea may be for readers, The Taking is very appealing. The unresolved mystery about Kyra’s disappearance and return remain interesting as each answer raises more questions and possibilities, especially around Kyra’s powers – both known and unknown. The story takes an unexpected twist towards the end which serves to magnify the speculative possibilities. Because of the unfamiliar premise, the distinct lack of concrete answers, and the myriad of questions that arise based on the last chapter, The Taking piques readers’ imagination and curiosity and gives them just enough to keep wanting more.
Not only does a story like this need great world building to pull it off, but great characters are needed to make you believe in what they are selling. THE TAKING managed to have both. I am pretty sure I would have reacted exactly the same way that Kyra did to the bizarre new life that greets her when she walks back into her life. It was very easy to put myself in her shoes and feel what she was going through. One of my favorite characters besides Kyra, was Tyler. Could he be any more perfect? He was a kid when she disappeared but always had a crush on her and he stepped up to be her rock and confidant from the moment she stepped foot back into her life.
This book was crazy! In a good way! Original, creepy, and intriguing all wrapped up in one great book. Just when you thought you were up to speed another twist is thrown in. THE TAKING starts out a bit slow but quickly picks up the pace. I was into it from page one and it never lost momentum for me. Book 2 was immediately put on my wishlist!
* This book was provided free of charge from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
The Taking has a concept that is quite popular this year. I haven't seen any of these shows, so the concept is fresh and interesting to me. I felt a lot of sympathy of Kyra because her world was turned upside down. Sure, her initial appearance where she acted kind of bratty and annoying wasn't a great impression, but that's how teenagers act. They're impulsive and don't look at the long term. When she returns, she copes with the situation as best as she can. The relationship with Tyler started really fast and was really based on nothing. It's another case of instalove, but it was at least sweet. Tyler is a little too perfect though. Characters have to have some flaws and he's like a teenage girl's ultimate fantasy. The romance also took precedence over the more important issue of where she was for five whole years. It takes a while for anything real to happen because of the focus on romance.
The concept that Kyra hadn't aged in 5 years was intriguing. Her new abilities were interesting, but it seemed very Mary Sue-ish that she had the most special powers of all the returned. I wish more information could have been found out about the process and the aliens, who weren't in the story at all. Why would aliens want to do this to us? What's the purpose of the experimentation? The ending was too convenient and really took me out of the story. I'm not interested in continuing the series.
Sadly, no.
The most believable thing about a book involving aliens shouldn't be the aliens, but it was. Nothing made a whole lot of sense in THE TAKING. After being missing for 5 years and having no memory of that time, no one thinks to have any medical tests done on Kyra. No one thinks it's odd that she hasn't aged a day, and in fact they don't even notice it until well into the book at a routine dentist appointment. No authorities are called to interview or investigate. No reporters show up or call for interviews. No one even asks her about it. Her family goes back to life as normal pretty much the next day, leaving Kyra to take off without notice when ever she wants (she comes home at night and everyone has already gone to bed!). It all seemed so ludicrous that people would act so casually after a missing child returns after five years-- especially since they assumed she was dead!
On top of that, the romance. Oh, the romance. It was the most egregious case of insta-love I've read maybe ever. Kyra was head over heels, we're-practically-planning-our-wedding in love with Austin one day, the next day--five years later for everyone else--she spots Austin's now 17 year old brother, Tyler, and gets all swoony. Within a week--a week!--they are using the L-word. It was insane. I kept wishing Derting would have just kept the same boyfriend and had them struggle with overcoming the age difference and missing years instead of switching one brother for another in such a short period of time but expecting the reader to buy in to a new supposed love. Kyra literally went from crazy in love with one to crazy in love with the other in five days without any downtime or real heartbreak.
The aliens and mystery about why they took Kyra and then returned her, the others they have taken, and the changes wrought in these returned people is all very interesting and suspenseful. But there were so many frustrating things about THE TAKING that defy credulity. The aliens I buy, it's all the humans that are unbelievable in this book.
What would you do if you woke up and found that 5 years had passed while you slept?
While not the most plausible story, it was intriguing. I'm not sure how I feel about her switching her romantic feelings from one brother to the
That's the situation 16 year old Kyra Agnew finds herself in when the story begins. She has no idea where those five years have gone, or what happened to her during that time, but she's back, and has to try to make sense of everything she's now experiencing, including facing the fact that her boyfriend has moved on.
Discussion: I like Kimberly Derting, although this first book of a new series displays some of the same flaws as her "Body Finder" series, such as an unrealistically perfect boyfriend. In addition, the science fiction/paranormal aspects are dangerously close to being over the top. Yet, in spite of these recurrent shortcomings, Derting has a talent for building suspense into the action that keeps you turning the pages. She also does a good job here of exploring Kyra’s emotions as she finds her whole life and even her identity turned upside down.
Evaluation: This book has an interesting premise, and the author a challenging job to make her plot conceit believable enough to be scary rather than something that only causes eye-rolling. I am intrigued to see how she continues this story in future books.
The way this book ended is pretty much unforgivable, however, even for light reading. I wouldn't have read it if I'd known.
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A ridiculously juvenile schlocky romance. Blech.