From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Bloor (
Tangerine) shows top form with a gripping novel, set 30 years in the future, that works as both a thriller and a commentary on the dangerously growing gap between America's rich and poor. Thirteen-year-old Charity Meyers lives with her father, a dermatologist whose wealth has survived the World Credit Crash, and her stepmother, a noxious vidscreen personality. Despite all the precautions within the Meyers' high-security housing development, Charity is kidnapped on New Year's Day 2036—the taken of the title, also a chess allusion to a didn't-see-it-coming plot twist. Because child-snatching is a major growth industry in South Florida, Charity has been trained to handle the stress and she knows what should happen. Within 24 hours, her parents will empty their home vault of its currency, and she will be freed. Pacing the narrative so readers can feel the clock ticking, the author fills in Charity's back story—the ironic death of her mother to skin cancer, her days at satschool, where education comes beamed in from an elite Manhattan academy, her home run by Albert and Victoria, the butler and maid whose very names are regulated by Royal Domestic Services. Bloor, whose gimlet-eyed view of modern society has occasionally pushed his narratives to extremes, reigns in the satire to concoct a plausible-enough scenario of the not-too-distant future, adding just the right measure of consciousness-raising in the dialogue between Charity and a teenage abductor. Deftly constructed, this is as riveting as it is thought-provoking. Ages 12-up.
(Oct.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Bloor sets his latest novel in Florida, 2035, in a world sharply divided by wealth and race. Kidnapping has become a "major growth industry," and everyone knows the rules: pay up within 24 hours, and the child is returned. Thirteen-year-old Charity's rich family lives in the Highlands, a tightly secured gated community; they have a butler who doubles as a heavily armed security guard. Even so, Charity is "taken." But for some reason, the payoff goes tragically wrong, and Charity is forced to step outside the rule book and fight for her life. Although many of the secondary characters are flat, Charity is an appealing observer who looks beyond class and begins to think for herself. Her calm recounting of the kidnapping scenario increases the tension, while interspersed flashbacks provide believable details of her disturbing world. This page-turner will grab readers at the outset, and its unexpected twist at the close will send them back through events to look for embedded clues. Pair this with Caroline Cooney's Code Orange (2005). Rutan, Lynn
