Review of Taken by Tony Talbot

*** Rating: 3/5 Stars***

I liked Taken but it wasn't the most fantastic book I've read. Overall I just didn't really find myself getting pulled into the story, at least not until right up at the end. And its the fact that in the final couple of chapters I couldn't really pull myself away that has meant that I'm rating this 3 stars and not 2. 


Talbot does some things really well and his portrayal of our isolated male teen protagonist, Amon, is probably pretty spot on! The kid has grown up on an island, living an extremely isolated life. And its very clear from the very start that something is seriously wrong with his father, because even though all he does at first is drive fast, Amon is so careful around him its like he's waiting for something to explode. Talbot really sets up the characters very well in that regard, if he wants you to think they're dangerous or revolting - you'll know it. He did it so well infact that even when things change and Amon questions his original views of certain charachters, I couldn't quite shake the sense that there was something sick and weird about them and they could not be trusted. 


There were OTHER things though that just threw me entirely. For example - straight off the bat I decided that Amon's dad must be an idiot. An angry idiot and a bully, but an idiot nonetheless. His father was checking how long they'd taken on their trip and getting all 'speedy gonzalez' with a death wish in a SMARTCAR 


A smartcar is this tiny little environmentally friendly compact thing - its only got a 1L engine on for goodness sakes. The idea that this car could push 140 without turning to mush is quite hilarious. If he's a man worried about speed then that is NOT the car for him. Seriously it comes down to a choice between saving the world, one environmentally friendly car at a time, or buying a gas guzzling hulk of a machine that can drive like the wind. Speed or Green? That is the choice. Of course maybe Talbot was talking about some invented car like Kit in Knight Rider - which I dismissed because of references to how tall the father was and how tiny the car is, and the fact that it didn't really do anything special lol, but if that's the case - my bad. 


But overall, it was a good book. If you don't mind a bit of a wait for things to really get interesting and some moments of weird stalker like behaviour and ickness from his mum then you should definitely give it a read.