Review-Taken

I've come to realize that dystopian is really the new vampire, which is totally okay, but sometimes you just get so tired of reading one dystopian after the other because they all end up blending together, but Taken is not like that.  When I started it I knew that it had been pitched as a sort of sci-fi story, and I saw the element in it, but I wasn't sure WHAT it was.  Basically I wasn't sure if it was aliens or something else that gave it a science-fiction-y edge.  Most of the time there's a huge part of the book that's devoted to romance, and the main character is usually a girl, but Erin changes things up.  She ONLY uses a male POV, and only one at that, and while there is romance it's not at the heart of the book.  Throughout the whole book I was trying to figure out things before they were revealed to the main character, Gray, and to be honest I didn't get all of them.  Personally I feel like Erin has taken (haha, get it?) parts of other novels/movies/ect. and put them into her novel.  Now, this isn't a bad thing, because she mixes them up in a big pot and turns them into something completely different.  There are big plot twists and I think that this is one of those books that will apply to both the male and the female population out there.  I love how it was broken up into four sections, and maybe I've been taking LA classes too long, but I think I see some symbolism in a few of the parts of the book.  The book goes from a very old-time rustic setting to a very sleek and modern setting in a short amount of time, and I was very amused with descriptions of every day things like cars and guns seen through the eyes of Gray.  Taking components of Shatter Me, The Lost Code, a little bit of The X Files, and The Giver I was pleased with the outcome of this novel.  I can't wait for the next installment of this series, because I'm sure it will bring about more surprises and twists.

Out April 16, 2013

5/5 dust spirits

*Thank you to Harper Teen for providing me with an ARC in return for an honest review of the book.