Reviews

The Taker by Alma Katsu

bibliojojo's review

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3.0

This book started off very promising, then the story fell flat & dragged on & on...Finishing it felt like a chore, although there was something about it that kept me till the end. Complex.

serenaac's review

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4.0

Alma Katsu’s The Taker was recently listed in BookList’s Top 10 Debut books. Lanore, “Lanny,” shows up in her northern Maine hometown covered in blood, and the police say that she has confessed to killing a man and leaving him in the frozen woods. ER doctor, Luke Findley, becomes the recipient of a Gothic fairy tale that is more dark and sinister than full of fairy dust, unless that fairy is an evil alchemist and sodomite.

“The stranger had appeared suddenly, at the edge of the gathering that evening. The first thing Adair noticed about him was that he was very old, practically a shrunken corpse leaning on his walking stick, and as he got closer, he looked older still. His skin was papery and wrinkled, and dotted with age spots. His eyes were coated with a milky film but nevertheless had a strange sharpness to them. He had a thick head of snow white hair, so long that it trailed down his back in a plait. But most notable were his clothes, which were of Romanian cut and made of costly fabrics. Whoever he was, he was wealthy and, even though an old man, had no fear of stepping into a gypsy camp alone at night.” (page 162)

The Taker is a story within a story within a story, spanning from the dark ages through the present day, and Lanny claims to be immortal, but do not be mistaken into thinking she’s a vampire or werewolf. She is neither. Her unrequited love for the town pretty boy, Jonathan St. Andrew, is the main crux of the story and how it brings about her downfall that leads to her life as an immortal. Katsu spoke recently at Novel Places about the book and revealed that the story of Pinocchio is the backbone of her novel, which is clear in how the desire to grow up and become a woman with her own life separate from her family propels her to be led astray. However, that is where the similarity ends. Katsu’s novel is ripe with sodomy, rape, kidnapping, murder, and more, which is why it would be a perfectly dark book to read this season as Halloween approaches and is what would once have been considered horror (rather than the popular category of paranormal, which has a “lighter” tone to it).

Read the full review: http://savvyverseandwit.com/2011/10/the-taker-by-alma-katsu.html

cupiscent's review against another edition

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2.0

This book was so competent but so generally unsatisfying to me that I think we're going to have to chalk this one up to "just not my thing".

Basically, I just felt that it wasn't telling the right story in all this. The parts it dwelt upon were the parts I wasn't interested in, while the really fascinating stuff got glossed over. The characters were interesting, complex, involved, but we never got to see the parts of their conflict and change that I thought most interesting. (I found much of the first half of the book remarkably uninteresting, and then a vast space of time I would've loved to see the grind of gets passed over in a chapter break.)

Maybe a fundamental problem was that I just didn't feel - and therefore believe in - the heroine's eternal love for the insipid, spineless, careless, feckless - but oh so handsome - love interest. (Yes, I did appreciate the gender-flipping aspect whereby he's the fainting gothic heroine and she's the hero caught up with dark forces, but honestly, I would've been just as irritated with the stupid irrational love if the genders had been the other way around. Witness my regular rants about Cyrano-esque romance lines.)

OR perhaps it all comes back to the structure. The story-being-told-within-a-story bothers me, because then the purpose of the storytelling has to be an element of the novel, and frankly stories about storytelling seem more than a little wanky to me. Then you add in that Lanore is telling her story in chunks (though that is not immediately apparent and influences the intervening current-day narrative not at all, making it all rather contrived) and in first-person, which meant I was forever second-guessing what she was saying, but if she is supposed to be an unreliable narrator, it was never developed. Which is rather disingenuous, frankly. Also, why on earth does she use the word "swive" for sex when she's telling the story in 2011 to a modern man?

I guess I feel that the author made her storytelling choices because they were easy, not interesting and useful.

Call it two and a half stars, because I did finish it, and it's very readable. Just utterly not my thing.

rly18's review

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4.0

a very dark fantasy/horror type read. Audio was great

readingallison's review against another edition

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4.0

I am debating if this is 4.5 stars or just actually 5 stars
Needless to say I loved it! Possibly my favourite Alma Katsu book
I am very excited to continue to read this series
My only con with this book is that based on reviews I had read I went into this expecting over the top crazy raunchiness and it simply wasn't. Compared to other books I've read parts of this were honestly tame
My list of pros seems endless

melissa_clark78's review

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3.0

This book was a little too dark for me.

la_cori's review against another edition

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3.0

Immortal è stato un libro che mi è piaciuto e non piaciuto allo stesso tempo..
La storia è originale, questa figura degli immortali (non vampiri, grazie al cielo) che attinge dalla magia/alchimia è decisamente interessante e particolare; così come la capacità dalla scrittrice di tratteggiare i personaggi. Quando ho letto che che Alma Katsu è una profiler della CIA ho capito da dove veniva questa indagine così dettagliata dell'animo umano, in ogni suo aspetto, soprattutto quelli meno positivi.
Detto ciò, perchè do solo 3 stelline?? Perchè leggendo questo libro avevo la sensazione di non andare più avanti, di girare intorno al punto di svolta ma non arrivarci mai davvero..
La struttura stessa del romanzo, con i vari racconti inscatolati uno all'interno dell'altro, l'ho trovata un po' macchinosa.. C'è da dire che però è tutto intrecciato alla perfezione, con i vari salti temporali indicati all'inizio del capitolo e la narrazione che variava di conseguenza..
In conclusione "Immortal" ha tutti gli elementi per essere un romanzo tra i miei preferiti, ma questi elementi sono gestiti in un modo a me poco congeniale.. Sicuramente più avanti leggerò il continuo,
Spoiler quell'accenno alle lettere dell'avvocato riguardanti la casa di Boston dove è intrappolato Adair non sarà mica messo lì a caso, no?!

unabridgedchick's review

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2.0

This uneven first novel promises the start of an entertaining series for those who enjoy supernatural/paranormal historicals. Big, dramatic, and lurid, this novel tells the story of Lanny McIlvrae, a woman born in 19th century rural Maine, who still walks the Earth some two centuries later, tortured by her past. Alternating between now -- when she convinces the ER doctor to help her escape to Canada and then Paris -- and recounting her past -- how she ended up immortal -- the story features sex, violence, a hint of supernatural elements, and unrequited love.

This book felt very familiar to me in tone and plot (most notably Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles and Cate Tiernan's Balefire books), especially with the story-within-a-story style Katsu employs. According to her website, she was particularly inspired by the Pinnochio story which can be seen in Lanny's developmental arc; but unfortunately, to me, the story just seemed a bit tired and 'done': the excesses and immoral decadence of the immortals, the fascination with beautiful people being immortalized, the desire to atone for one's centuries-long sins. Which is a shame because Katsu's writing is good and her heroine Lanny had promise. I greatly enjoyed the historical sections, following Lanny's adolescence in her repressive, small village, where she nurtured a one-side love for the town's rich, beautiful playboy. Her devotion to him leads to her downfall, of course, the slow eroding of her soul as she does what she can to remain his, in whatever form.

The contemporary portions of the novel rang most awkward and unrealistic; in a novel this size, I would have liked more time developing why this small town doc would give up everything to help Lanny. He's a flimsy foil for Lanny to tell her story; I'd much rather this have been her diaries or a letter although I suppose the doctor will feature in the next book.

I've seen a lot of reviews that describe this book as 'sexy' which I find baffling: certainly, there's a ton of sex in it, but it's often violent and/or non-consensual, which isn't my idea of hot. It is, however, dramatic and titillating and grotesque and entertaining, over-the-top escapism for the autumn, a beach read when it's too chilly for the beach

katesbookishreads's review

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4.0

Well, this book started out strong. The characters were well introduced and played out. However, while I enjoy a good smutty book, everybody and anybody was doing it in the middle. It got a little bit annoying. The beginning of the last third of the book also started out strong. But, it ended kind of blandly for me. I was expecting more and it just fell flat. I am going to finish the trilogy— more than likely next month.

midnightbookgirl's review against another edition

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4.0

I feel like this book would be good for fans of The Historian and The Crucible, maybe some early Anne Rice, as it's got that kind of vibe.

The Taker is a tale of unrequited love, immortality, and how easy it might be to just run away from a hospital during your shift while helping a murder suspect get away. Don't worry, Canada will let you in, and then you can always fly to Europe later on!

Honestly, I really enjoyed this book, despite the snark. Lanore grows up the daughter of a simple farmer in the town of St. Andrews in Maine in the 1800s. She desperately loves Jonathan St. Andrew, the gorgeous and charismatic son of the town founder. The two forge a friendship, but for Lanore it's much more. She is given a brief time with Jonathan before being shipped off to Boston to a convent.

While Lanore might be love sick, she's not an idiot. Determined not to end up in the care of nuns, she instead runs off... and straight into the arms of a diabolical count, Adair. It's there she finds herself made immortal... not a vampire though, just immortal.

The plot flips from modern dayish to Lanore's past, and I really enjoyed it despite thinking I was picking up a horror novel. It's not quite that, but I am definitely planning on reading the next book!