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A review by queenb13
Taken by Erin Bowman
3.0
This book had many good ideas that happened way too quickly. While everything that happened was interesting, it happened too quickly for me to really process it, let alone for the characters to. The character development really suffered because of this. They all seemed so two-dimensional to me. Emma is the gentle healer. Bree is the fierce warrior. Blaine is the nice guy. Gray is impulsive. They never amounted to anything more than their surface level descriptions. The main character Gray had a bit more depth to him, but I couldn't make sense of him even. The fast pace also caused a lot of interesting things that have been more deeply explored out for the sake of keeping that story going.
This book also has not only one insta-love, but two. That's right, there's a love triangle, and while I didn't outright hate this one, I never felt the connection between Gray and the two girls. We're told from chapter one that Emma dislikes Gray and prefers Blaine, but within twenty pages of that two of them are making out. And she never develops beyond that! Literally everything that girl says after that has to do with how much she loooooooves him. "But Emma, I thought he was mean! And violent! And you didn't like him!" "Yeah, but then we talked for like five minutes and I realized how wrong I was!" Funny how many years of dislike a five minute conversation can wipe away. Bree has a tad more depth to her, but even she starts liking Gray ridiculously fast after an initial dislike. I just...no.
I was interested enough in the concept to keep reading, and I have enough questions to read the next one. Hopefully events will be explored a bit more deeply and I'll get a better feel for the characters. This wasn't a bad book at all, and if an interesting plot is the biggest things for you, I think you'll enjoy it.
Spoiler
I understand that he's impulsive, but there is a fine line between that and stupid, and he crosses that many times. Like when he discovers that Maude is speaking to an adult male. Why on earth would he just randomly shout out that he's a twin and escaped the Heist when he's just discovered that his leader has been lying to him all his life? For all he knew, the minute everyone knew he was really 18 he'd be Heisted. And then later, when he gets picked up by Marco and Frank's group, he ignores his gut instinct that these people are trouble, even though this entire time he's been telling us that he always listens to his emotions in making decisions . His reasoning for it makes no sense. Why on earth would Emma not be able to survive the outside just as well as him? He kept saying that since he survived the Heist he would be okay, but the Heist doesn't take girls. So why wouldn't Emma have just a good of chance as him? It just didn't make sense. Oh, and Frank? I knew he was the real bad guy and framing Harvey before he even opened his mouth. Of course, Gray keeps getting these "feelings" that Frank is lying, but he just ignores them, even though he "always listens to his feelings!" It was just so contradictory.Spoiler
For instance, I would have loved to meet a Forgery, to hear things from their point of view. I know Harvey said that they were programmed to be loyal to Frank, but he also said that they had all the existing memories and personality of the person they were copied from. What if one of them wanted life more than they wanted to serve Frank? How would he feel learning that he is nothing more than a copy, made only for his expendability? That's a fascinating psychological concept that isn't touched on at all. Also, the characters learn new information so fast they never get a chance to really react to it. The people who were Heisted, for example, never really reacted the way I imagined people would upon learning their whole life has been an experiment. Sure, they get angry at Harvey and want to kill him, but that's only expressed internally, in Gray's thoughts, and in brief snatches of calm conversation between soldiers. Where's the rage upon realizing your whole life has been controlled? Shouldn't they lash out? Gray's been called impulsive, but he barely even reacts beyond thinking that he wants to kill Harvey. On top of that, the society the Heisted people come from is primitive, far different from the world they enter into, yet they all take it in a stride. They go from using candles to video-cameras without batting an eye. Shouldn't they be experiencing some sort of culture shock, or at least questioning everything around them in an attempt to learn about this new, advanced world? Gray is always thinking how strange everything is, but he never asks. Why doesn't he ask, try to learn? It doesn't make sense.This book also has not only one insta-love, but two. That's right, there's a love triangle, and while I didn't outright hate this one, I never felt the connection between Gray and the two girls. We're told from chapter one that Emma dislikes Gray and prefers Blaine, but within twenty pages of that two of them are making out. And she never develops beyond that! Literally everything that girl says after that has to do with how much she loooooooves him. "But Emma, I thought he was mean! And violent! And you didn't like him!" "Yeah, but then we talked for like five minutes and I realized how wrong I was!" Funny how many years of dislike a five minute conversation can wipe away. Bree has a tad more depth to her, but even she starts liking Gray ridiculously fast after an initial dislike. I just...no.
I was interested enough in the concept to keep reading, and I have enough questions to read the next one. Hopefully events will be explored a bit more deeply and I'll get a better feel for the characters. This wasn't a bad book at all, and if an interesting plot is the biggest things for you, I think you'll enjoy it.