I cannot adequately put into words how much I despise this book. The author wanted to write a "50 Shades of Grey" but without the sex, or an "Interview with a Vampire" but without the vampires. The writing lacks detail and is lazy. The author doesn't take rape, abuse, sexual assault, or drug/alcohol addiction seriously, making off-hand comments about them and seems to think they have no emotional/psychological/lasting impact on anyone.

I got this book free as I subscribe to newbooks magazine, and I'm really glad I did! Great characters and great story, simple to read and compelling.

I was excited when I heard about this book. I think fictional immortality is a fascinating topic and I haven't read a non-vampiric immortality tale since [b:Forever|148465|Forever|Pete Hamill|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1442120422l/148465._SY75_.jpg|1038124].

But this book was so, so, so very bad. Everybody in this book lacks basic common sense and basic humanity. It is just…there are almost no words. It is as if a really bad romance book hooked up with some Saw torture-porn and had a baby that then mated with a really lame thriller. It is bad in SO MANY DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS ALL AT ONCE.

Okay, so the premise which I wanted to like: while on duty at a small town hospital, a doctor has to tend to a strange girl covered in blood hauled in by the police for a murder she admits to committing. The doctor is just supposed to make sure she’s whole enough to be taken to jail. So he starts to patch her up and then she pulls the whole, “the guy I killed totally wanted me to, and by the way we are both immortals.” The doctor is all, “yeah, whatever crazy murderer lady.” And the girl is like, “No, seriously. Watch this.” *stab*. BECAUSE THE ONLY WAY TO PROVE IMMORTALITY IS TO STAB YOURSELF. I know this is how it happened in Highlander, but, seriously, there has to be another way, right? The girl (Lanny) ends up doing this every time she wants to show someone she’s immortal. In fact, she does it to show another guy that he is immortal now, too. I think it would’ve been more effective to shoot him (the new immortal, not the doc). But whatever. Stab yourself whenever, Lanny, I hate you so much.

I really, really hated Lanny. She was dumb. INCREDIBLY DUMB. And reacted like no regular human being would to anything. I can maybe swing her insane crush on Jonathan. She’s a small town girl with a small town life, and there were probably, like, two dozen possible mates in her area. And Jonathan is apparently insanely pretty. But he is also a class-A jerkass. He begins his friendship with Lanny by…forcing his tongue down her throat and putting her hand on his crotch. She is twelve. Lovely opening salvo there, Johnny-boy. Lanny is so smitten with this she spends her adolescence pining for him and hoping he will one day have a roll in the hay with her, and is deeply disappointed when their relationship immediately becomes platonic. That happened because characters in this book have the memories of alcoholic goldfish and the whole first-meeting molestation is never mentioned again and Lanny acts like Jonathan has never touched her and that they are besties because they get along so well. It is weird and creepy.

Jonathan, little fucker that he is, goes around banging every female between puberty and senility in the village. He manages to impregnate one, abandons her, and drives her to suicide. He feels a little bad about this. But not really. Lanny is not deterred by this and is maybe not a little turned on because then Jonathan finally bangs her and she is deliriously happy. Lanny, of course, also gets pregnant (damn, half the next generation of that village will be fathered by Jonathan, won’t it?). She is packed off to Boston where she finally gets her immortality. How? By being kidnapped by a group of immortal psychos. After being raped so badly that something rips the Head Psycho Immortal decides he likes her and grants her immortality.

She and the reader are then subjected to his stupid back story which is: he was also raped and tortured by his creator! Is this supposed to be a message on the cycle of abuse? Anyway, this part was completely unnecessary and could’ve been solved by a paragraph of playing exposition fairy. Like most of this book, it was random and weird and gross but at the same time incredibly boring.

Anyway, Lanny gets instant Stockholm Syndrome. It was horrible. So, she is living in a house with a bunch of sadistic rapists. She was brought into the house with the whole purpose of being repeatedly, brutally raped and then shoved out the door with a few coins. Her reaction to Head Psycho Immortal? He’s so pretty. Apparently, if the man is attractive enough he can do anything to you and it’s okay. Later in the book, Head Psycho Immortal tortures and rapes her worse than anything she’s been subjected to before as a punishment for some wrong. He then takes her to bed where she is a “distracted, absent partner” not because she is horrified by what he has just done to her, but because she is thinking about Jonathan. When she wakes up in the morning, she “drank in the sight of Adair [Head Psycho Immortal], his head on the pillow” and then goes on to lovingly describe how handsome he looks sleeping. THIS IS SO WRONG. THERE ARE NO WORDS FOR HOW WRONG THIS IS. I would say that Katsu is trying to show someone with Battered Wife Syndrome, except for the fact that Head Psycho Immortal is continuously treated like he is a potential romantic interest, both by Lanny and others. Doctor from the present-day timeline actually says, “What about Adair? From what you’ve said, it seems that he could have been in love with you…?” NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO. Was he actually listening to the words coming out of Lanny’s mouth?!?!? The guy continuously tortures and rapes her, brings other girls and women into the house to do the same to, and constantly reminds Lanny she can never leave and that he can kill her anytime he wants. This is not love. This is not even kind of love. This makes creepy stalker YA paranormal love interests look like paragons of virtue and restraint. This is the worst thing ever.

So the historical storyline is horrid. Everyone is unforgivably horrid, and Lanny’s hero worship of Jonathan (undeserved) and Stockholm Syndrome affection for Adair (creepy) is painful. Lanny is incapable of doing anything for herself. Everything she does is for Jonathan. She doesn’t even consider running away until Jonathan is potentially in danger. The entire point of her wanting to keep her baby was that it was Jonathan’s (and not because she actually wanted children or she didn't want to give up a baby, but because it was a part of Jonathan. That would've been a healthy mother-child relationship). I wanted to strangle the girl myself. I think she is in the running for one of the most unlikeable heroines of the year. Every single one of her actions was based on what Jonathan will think of it. Give someone a blowjob in exchange for information? It’s okay, because “Jonathan would forgive me, I was sure, and in any case, Jonathan would never know.” This insane dependence of self-worth on a man’s opinion would be tolerable if Lanny ever matured or grew as a character. She doesn’t. In the modern storyline, she is the exact same person.

And the modern day storyline is just as bad. Because apparently Lanny is the stupidest person to have ever lived for 200 years. She has learned NOTHING. Upon being found with a dead body by the police: admits to doing it. Doesn’t even try to pretend it was self-defense. Upon being rescued by a man (the doctor): lets him do everything. Is incapable of being discrete. Upon just killing the supposed love of her life: jumps the doctor's bones the first night after meeting.

And the historical part is apparently being told as a story by Lanny to the doctor. Except for the fact that the doctor never has any reaction to what Lanny is saying, it’s unclear when in the modern timeline she’s telling it (driving? at nights in the hotel? whenever there is a lull in the conversation?), it just cuts back and forth, and Lanny spills everything. Why? Who actually is like, “I’m going to tell you my entire life story right now. Please don’t interrupt or ask for clarification or anything. Let me monologue my background.”

I don’t know if there’s anything redeeming about this book. The characters are dumber than crap and unlikeable. The plot is one long string of obsession with Jonathan and dark deeds by Head Psycho Immortal. The romance is not even there. THERE IS NO ROMANCE. None. None whatsoever. It actually is the opposite of romantic, because if the males presented are the only options out there, I would never get with a guy again.

I received this book through the Goodreads First Reads program. Thanks!

I want to give this book 4.5 stars. I loved it for the first third or so, was so sucked in I couldn't put it down. But the middle part of it dragged a bit too much for me to give it five stars. (I'll never understand all the reviews in this site where people gush about how much they loved a book, then they give it four or even three stars.) I really struggled with finding any interest in the Adair years, with all the sex and hedonism. But the present day story, as well as th early parts of Lanore's life, were fascinating. I also struggled a bit with the characters. Lanore undergoes such unbelievable changes in her own personality and interests, in a lot of ways, but then it's also hard to tell whether this is just her adaptation to a life she's unable to escape. Jonathan was not the most likeable guy, either.

The writer is great at describing a scene, and making you feel like you're there. Particularly the descriptions of northern Maine...she made it very appealing, minus the snow. =)

I have already ordered the second book, and look forward to reading it.

I would recommend this book, definitely.

My first disappointment of 2021. The concept was fine - magical realism/historical fiction, supernatural love story - but this was boring. I was on the verge of DNFing more than once, but put this in the “sunk cost fallacy” column. My main issue with this was the current day story - it was unnecessary. This would have worked much better, and been a leaner story, if it had just told Lanore’s story without the modern day framing.

Review first posted at http://unautrehistoire.blogspot.com/

I knew nothing about The Taker by Alma Katsu before I received an e-mail from Simon and Schuster Canada. So, it sat on my shelf for a couple months, I knew I was going to read it, but I also knew I had other things to read. I am so glad that I got to read this book. SO glad. Alma Katsu took me for a literary ride that I will never forget. I think after reading this story I am kind of obsessed with it. The story itself was amazing, but so was the writing, so were the characters. While reading this book, I had a hard time putting it down. It was full of suspense, and twists and turns, and thrills. It was a roller coaster that I was happy to be on.

The story essentially starts with Dr. Luke treating Lanny, and Lanny- revealing herself as immortal-needs Luke's help to escape. What Lanny also needs help with is her grief. She has just lost the love of her life, Jonathan, and is suffering for it. However it's not that simple. I don't want to give away to much here, So I won't go into to much detail. However, Lanny goes on to tell Luke her story.How she came to be immortal, the people she met, the things she did, and how after so many years, Jonathan is dead.

I have read stories in the past, that start out hundreds of years in the past, and somehow end up in present day. I have read stories that tell of what life was like way back when, what was done, how a character has changed for the better, and so on, and so forth. The Taker has all of this, but it also has more. What that more is, I don't really know. Lanny starts her story in 1816 when she first approaches Jonathan at church. It is here that their friendships begins. She talks about how their relationship evolved, but, she also says that she loved him from the very beginning. She tells about how things changed and she was forced to leave the town she knew as home, and venture to a big unknown city. It is here that she meets Adair, and her life of immortality begins. It was all very captivating. The Taker was a story within a story, and at one point, I was reading a story within a story, within a story. I really loved the multi-dimensional story telling that I found in The Taker. The story flowed beautifully, and I was never confused by the back and forth between past and present.

Katsu is a great writer, and I feel like she had a great balance of plot and character. The characters in this novel were great, however I think that without the story that she had created they wouldn't have been that special, however, at the same time, I also believe that without the characters she had developed the plot would have fallen flat. The Taker was a story about interpersonal relationships, and the relationship dynamics were complex. They were insanely destructive,co-dependant, and incredibly unhealthy, but, at the same time, you didn't want them to end.

I was happy with how the book ended, having no clue that it was indeed part of a trilogy, I felt it ended well. I thought there was some possibility for a sequel. Now I am so excited for the next installment. There are characters I am hoping will return and I am eager to read more about Lanny and Luke.

The Taker was really an amazing novel and I hope that you all go out and buy it on release day. Sept 6th, it will not disappoint.