Taken

This novel by Edward Bloor is classified in the young adult section, but that's nothing new for me--there is so much great fiction out there for this age group, and they're usually fast, enjoyable reads, so I read a lot of them. I actually read about it in Unshelved, which is a comic strip about a library. Every Sunday they do a book review strip in full color. This novel is set in the 2030s, and I love futuristic settings. The main character, Charity, is kidnapped--but that is not an uncommon occurrence in this future. Social classes have become farther and farther apart, after another stock market crash, and the United States has been divided into the very poor and the very rich. Lower-class citizens have created a "kidnapping industry," where they kidnap children of the rich and put them up for a large ransom. Also, many poorer citizens work as servants for the rich. It's a bizarre world, for sure, but Charity is just a regular teenage girl trying to figure out her life. There is a lot of action, as well as flashbacks to tell the back story, and the social implications of the plot are thought-provoking. I recommend it for both young adults and adults.