Taken

Rating:
Summary: Great Read!
Review: I completely disagree with the reader in Pittsburgh, PA who found this book to be incoherent. Did s/he read the same book as I did? I can't believe it!

Once I began reading Taken, I was hooked. I read it in two days. It is definitely a page turner, but not in a cliched cliff-hanger at the end of every chapter sort of way. The author has such a flair for words and for creating believeable characters that I turned each page because I *cared* what happened next. The book revolves around a kidnapped baby and how such an act affects everyone involved, from the police, to the kidnappers, to the heroine and to the baby's family. What's really neat about Taken is that you get into the minds of all the characters, all of whom (including the kidnappers) come across as being genuinely human. This book is a literary novel that just so happens to be a mystery. What a fine combination that doesn't insult the reader's intelligence! The author is skilled in her ability to weave together all of these lives, and by the end of the book, I missed having to say good bye to the characters.

As for the reader in Pittsburgh who didn't like the book (?!), there's that old saying, "Not everyone likes pearls." This is definitely a gem of a book.

Rating:
Summary: wonderful summer book!
Review: I loved this book and highly recommend it for anyone looking for an exciting, book that grabs you from the beginning and whisks you away. The characters are wonderfully realistic, and the story keeps you on the edge of your seat. You won't want to put it down.

Rating:
Summary: Another Pittsburgh Thriller
Review: I took this mystery along with me to France. I started reading it and stayed up all night to finish it. I love the way George pieces everything together. I find this style more interesting than the typical "who dunit" where one has no idea who is guilty to the end. Marina and the cop are great characters. Even the bad guys were interesting.

Rating:
Summary: Taken by this book !
Review: I'm a lifetime reader. I read for my pleasure but also to recommend books to my busy children. So I read "Taken", totally involved in this new kind of heroine, this Marina of perfect integrity. I loved every word, every sentence, every page and naturally didn't want it to end (and can't wait for the next Kathleen George !). Passed it to my pregnant daughter and she was loving it so much that she told me she was reading it to her foetus. Next daughter read it and loved it and even the sons-in-law who never read fiction, broke down and read it too. This is an emotional reaction, unlike the book reviews we had to write for school. Others have retold the story - and there is a great story - I like the contagion of enthousiasm. I felt while reading it that I was living each moment with the characters, breathing with them, and Kathleen George actually breathes life into her characters. I'm very impressed and elated that writers can do this. May they continue for all eternity. I love Kathleen George ! She has a whole fan club in faraway Nice, France.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Taken!
Review: I'm a lifetime reader. I read for my pleasure but also to recommend books to my busy children. So I read "Taken", totally involved in this new kind of heroine, this Marina of perfect integrity. I loved every word, every sentence, every page and naturally didn't want it to end (and can't wait for the next Kathleen George !). Passed it to my pregnant daughter and she was loving it so much that she told me she was reading it to her foetus. Next daughter read it and loved it and even the sons-in-law who never read fiction, broke down and read it too. This is an emotional reaction, unlike the book reviews we had to write for school. Others have retold the story - and there is a great story - I like the contagion of enthousiasm. I felt while reading it that I was living each moment with the characters, breathing with them, and Kathleen George actually breathes life into her characters. I'm very impressed and elated that writers can do this. May they continue for all eternity. I love Kathleen George ! She has a whole fan club in faraway Nice, France.

Rating:
Summary: wonderful summer book!
Review: It was great fun reading this book as a Pittsburgher. Not many books have utilized Pittsburgh as the city involved in a mystery. At least not many I've read. It was great to recognize parts of the city, Ohio River Blvd which I travel almost every day, and many other sites used.

George is an excellent writer, and her plotting is phenomenal. She draws on every parent's nightmare, the kidnapping of an infant. In this case, the black market for babies is involved. The demand for a white, male infant is still large enough that people will do the wrong things in desperation, not realizing they are often participants in crimes. This is very well demonstrated through George's book.

I don't know exactly what it was about the characterization. Even though George gave a lot of information about the people, they never became three dimensional to me, hence the four stars instead of five stars. There were a lot of people to keep track of and perhaps that was part of the problem! Even the baby, who should have been described physically and personality-wise did not come across as real.

Another problem for me, as always, is the use of vile language. Yeah, I realize the author put it in for reasons of reality, but I still don't want to read it. Personal preference, but there are others out there who also want to be forewarned about the amount of disgusting language used in the book. There was not enough of it in this book to not read it. George may improve over time as per characterization. Hope so, she wrote a very interesting book otherwise...

Karen Sadler

Rating:
Summary: Taken by "Taken"
Review: Normally, I don't read thrillers, but having lived for a time in Pittsburgh, I was interested in reading a novel set in a city that I was very fond of. I found the book to be a real "page turner" and was beginning to resent any time that I had to set it aside. I had read Ms. George's previously published book of short stories (The Man in the Buick- which I also highly recommend) and what I admired in her writing in that book was also a quality present in her new novel: a pristine, almost clinical prose that manages to generate a sense of warmth and emotional engagement with the events and characters on the page. In TAKEN, the characters are clearly drawn; so much so that I found myself wishing that the ones who appeared briefly had more time on the page. I also very much liked how my expectations of situations and characters were almost always upended- that was part of what made the book difficult to put down for me. Far from making the plot muddled or far fetched (living in NYC, nothing seems far fetched to me) the frequent turn arounds kept me wanting to hurtle through the book and discover where I was being led. Finally, what I most liked about the writing was that rather than just being a straight forward thriller, Ms. George was using the genre as an outline which she then filled in with the colors of a psychological study. I would most definitely recommend this book for anyone looking for a good Summer read. It's going to be a few people's Christmas gifts this year, too. I look forward to whatever comes from Ms. George in the future.

Rating:
Summary: TAKEN by Kathleen George
Review: TAKEN is a wonderful and brilliant novel! It is simultaneously captivating, thrilling and charming. The characters are fascinating; we can hear them think, and we can feel their reactions - the author reveals their human-ness. Even the bad guys are interesting! The plot is gripping and original. TAKEN is far superior to the mystery fiction I usually read. I was totally absorbed in the world of the book - I didn't want it to end! More, please, Ms. George!

Rating:
Summary: TAKEN by Kathleen George
Review: TAKEN is a wonderful and brilliant novel! It is simultaneously captivating, thrilling and charming. The characters are fascinating; we can hear them think, and we can feel their reactions - the author reveals their human-ness. Even the bad guys are interesting! The plot is gripping and original. TAKEN is far superior to the mystery fiction I usually read. I was totally absorbed in the world of the book - I didn't want it to end! More, please, Ms. George!

Rating:
Summary: Waste of money!
Review: Taken is supposed to be a 'thriller'. But, it does not thrill. It has two main problems. First, it is written badly. The characters are thin, and the main character seems only to reflect George's (perhaps ideal) image of herself, her ideal mate, etc. Second, the story is not 'complex,' as such, but far-fetched. One constantly questions whether x or y event in the book would ever, in any possible world, happen. I am sorry but I cannot recommend Taken.