"When sixteen-year-old Kyra Agnew wakes up behind a Dumpster at the Gas ’n’ Sip, she has no memory of how she got there. With a terrible headache and a major case of déjà vu, she heads home only to discover that five years have passed . . . yet she hasn’t aged a day.
Everything else about Kyra’s old life is different. Her parents are divorced, her boyfriend, Austin, is in college and dating her best friend, and her dad has changed from an uptight neat-freak to a drunken conspiracy theorist who blames her five-year disappearance on little green men.
Confused and lost, Kyra isn’t sure how to move forward unless she uncovers the truth. With Austin gone, she turns to Tyler, Austin’s annoying kid brother, who is now seventeen and who she has a sudden undeniable attraction to. As Tyler and Kyra retrace her steps from the fateful night of her disappearance, they discover strange phenomena that no one can explain, and they begin to wonder if Kyra’s father is not as crazy as he seems. There are others like her who have been taken . . . and returned. Kyra races to find an explanation and reclaim the life she once had, but what if the life she wants back is not her own?"
Aliens again? I'll tell you that The Taking is nothing like I Am Number Four or any of those other alien books.
Anyway. I suggest you think of The Taking more like Fantastic Four. Or superhero slash alien kind of thing. Obviously, it is indeed a bit complicated unless you read the book. Derting is really good at explaining things. I remember reading The Body Finder. Very creepy, but very good. Unfortunately, I haven't read the second book, but that isn't the point here.
Complicated doesn't cover it.
Kyra is a young girl. At sixteen, she was kidnapped or Taken. Then she was returned. After five years. Now a lot of things can change in five years. Kids grow up. People fall in love. People fall out of love. Parents get divorced. Teens become mature. Someone dies. Someone is born. And we, along with time, change. For better or worse. But Kyra is an exception. After five years, she is still sixteen. She is still the same girl when she was returned. Both mentally and physically. She didn't age. She didn't grow old. And all of this creepiness was thanks to aliens.
But she has changed. That is why I mentioned the Fantastic Four. Just think of the mutating cloud as aliens and them you might see Kyra as the Fantastic Four.
Still not helping?
Well, it is indeed complicated.
The Taking is an excellent story. I love the MIB (Men in Black) or as they call themselves, NSA (National Security Agency). The touch of aliens and little green men is interesting. It is such a shame that MIB are the enemies. However, the alien might (notice the verb) be the allies. Might.
The story goes by quickly. I went through the entire book quickly. Needless to say I did enjoy the book. Even the moments with Kyra's ex-boyfriend's little brother are adorable.
Did I just made her sound like a cougar? Whoops. Oh, well.
Derting writes the story very well. She doesn't switch POVs. She doesn't pull off anything terrible. In fact, The Taking is a safe book. Even though it is full of aliens. And it is absolutely fun. Overall, I really enjoyed The Taking. I think there is great potential, not to mention a great story behind it all. There is so much informaiton that Derting has yet to reveal. So am I reading the sequel? If I can get my hands on it.
Rating: Four out of Five
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