The Taker

The Taker
written by J.M. Steele



There's not much to talk about in terms of the book itself.  It's your typical YA, not too well written, not too horrible, with barely memorable characters and contrived plotlines.  This is the story that could have been great, but didn't try hard enough.  This book easily could have gone into the complexities of cheating and just how messed up standardized testing and the educational climate are right now, and where cheating would fit within that big picture...but it didn't.  Big, important, ethical arguments could have been made.  Instead, we got a fluffy story about a teenage girl's day to day goings on.  I don't know, readers, I think John Green's got the right idea in saying that teenagers are smarter than we sometimes give them credit.  Teens are totally capable of reading this kind of book, but also capable of so much more intelligent thought.  They live these complicated lives every day.  It's not that much of a stretch to believe they'd be able to read about the same.

Rating: 2/5