Taken by Erin Bowman

Taken by Erin Bowman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There are no men in Claysoot. There are boys—but every one of them vanishes at midnight on his eighteenth birthday. The ground shakes, the wind howls, a blinding light descends…and he’s gone.

They call it the Heist.

Gray Weathersby’s eighteenth birthday is mere months away, and he’s prepared to meet his fate–until he finds a strange note from his mother and starts to question everything he’s been raised to accept: the Council leaders and their obvious secrets. The Heist itself. And what lies beyond the Wall that surrounds Claysoot–a structure that no one can cross and survive.

Climbing the Wall is suicide, but what comes after the Heist could be worse. Should he sit back and wait to be taken–or risk everything on the hope of the other side?

My thoughts: What I liked about the book is that it is written from a guy's point of view but written by a woman. This eliminated most of the angsty self talk that irritates me so much. There was some reflection but it was necessary since Gray makes decisions that irk me. I'll be honest right up front. I liked Gray in the first part of the book but he was definitely less beloved by the end.

The story itself is fairly good being post apocalyptic, slash dystopian. It had the dictator with too much power and the rebel forces on the outside. There are still a lot of ways the next books can go and I am anxious to see where they lead.

Honestly, I felt a lot more pull to the story before the love triangle formed and, more importantly, Gray being a jerk. Although there was a lot going on and many possibilities, I would have rated it higher before I got to that point. It left a little sour taste in my mouth. He better compensate for being a jerk in the next book.