Taken

May 1, 2013

Gr 8 Up-Every boy in Claysoot is taken just after midnight the morning he turns 18 in what the villagers call the Heist. Every one, that is, except Gray. He and his brother, Blaine, are exactly one year apart in age, and when Blaine vanishes in a flash of light, Gray is grieved but unsurprised. However, the discovery of a letter left behind by his mother leads him to search through his own medical records where he discovers that he was not Blaine's younger brother but his twin. Compelled to learn the truth behind the Heist and the wall that surrounds his village, Gray and Emma, the daughter of the town medic, escape into the outside world-a world in which resources are scarce, rebels wage war against city dwellers, and allies are not what they seem. Although the characters are not particularly loyal or noble, they are very human and sympathetic for their flaws. The cliff-hanger ending, which finds Gray heading out into the wilderness in search of other walled communities, guarantees a sequel. Riding the popular wave of dystopian fiction, debut novelist Bowman has created a dramatic work that is reminiscent of Lois Lowry's The Giver (Houghton Mifflin, 1993) and will appeal to fans of Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games (Scholastic, 2008) and Lauren Oliver's Delirium (HarperCollins, 2011).-Jane Henriksen Baird, Anchorage Public Library, AK

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2013
Debut author Bowman takes readers on a suspenseful trek through a dystopian landscape. Gray has reached the age of 17 in a primitive town that's defined by what happens to boys on their 18th birthdays: They are Heisted away, never to return. Gray is frustrated by the community's calm, resigned acceptance of the boys' shocking fate, so after his brother Blaine's Heist, he determines to go over the massive wall that contains the town to search for the explanation for their grim existence. Unexpectedly, his almost-a-girlfriend Emma follows him. On the other side of the wall, they are both captured--or possibly befriended--by the Franconian Order, which runs the modern, water-starved city of Taem. The story they are told is quickly contradicted by other information they discover, leading to the pressing need to identify possible helpers who might oppose the brutal followers of Frank or the rebels (including attractive Bree) who operate outside the city. The story is told in Gray's first-person narration, with occasional conveniently found documents to supplement back story that he can't provide. While suspense is often palpable, other times, plot elements don't fully add up--the Heists are conducted with helicopters (that no one sees because they've been drugged), and Emma remains safe but unfaithful in Taem after Gray escapes--diminishing the impact for discerning readers. In spite of a few flaws, readers will eagerly await the next installment. (Dystopian adventure. 12-18)

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April 15, 2013
Grades 7-10 Gray is the oldest man in Claysootand he is just 18. Thanks to a long-held secret about his birth, he has escaped the Heist, the moment on the eve of a boy's eighteenth birthday that he disappears from the center of town in a shower of light and thunder. Unable to contain his anger and frustration about the unanswered questions, Gray takes the ultimate risk and climbs the Wall, though everyone who does returns dead. He doesn't expect Emma to follow him, nor does he expect everything he thinks he knows about the world to be turned upside down when he is rescued and taken to Taem, or again when he escapes and meets the Rebels and the father he never knew. This is an action-packed, emotionally charged, plot-twisting adventure that sets up a number of believable conflicts: between Taem and the Rebels, within family units, and even in a love triangle. Told from a guy's perspective, this dystopian has plenty of potential for gripping sequels.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)