Review: People should be reading this.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 13, 2012
This is a good book. The Overtaking is a light, fun read with excellent pacing; I started and finished it in a single day. Young adult books are not my primary reading genre, but I'm glad I took the time to read this one.At the beginning of The Overtaking, the Maslonian people are disappearing one by one. The Maslonian Council wants to get to the bottom of it. After his mother's disappearance (in the book's opening scene), Shayne joins the Council and is promptly thereafter kidnapped. Then, he is in another world thinking he has had completely different life than the one he actually had. But Shayne is resistant to the new memories, and he discovers he has hidden memories and powers. His powers reveal the thoughts of those around him, and he knows that some of the people around him are lying to him . . . about everything. All the while, there's a growing romantic connection between Shayne and one of his schoolmates, Danielle, who seems to be mixed up in all of this.How did Shane get to this new place with these new memories? What is Danielle's involvement? What is happening to the Malsonian people as they disappear? And most importantly, why is someone doing this to Shayne and his people?In my opinion, the best thing about this book is the pacing. My time reading it flew right by, because it was light and never dragged any scene along more than necessary. The characters were fine; perhaps a little one-dimensional, but like I said, it was a light read. The writing was solid for the most part, although there were a number of times (maybe fifteen or so) that I was abruptly thrown out of my suspension of disbelief by some cliche word choices. But I've spent a lot of time editing novels lately, so maybe that's just me.More people should be reading this book. Not all people, of course, but those who are into young adult, paranormal stuff. It's a good book, and it was well worth my time.