DNF Review: Untaken by J.E. Anckorn

Synopsis:

It turns out that a real alien invasion is nothing like the Sci-fi shows 14-year-old Gracie loves. Not when it’s your own family who are swallowed whole by those big silver ships. Not if it could be you next.

In her search for her family, Gracie meets Brandon, a high school dropout who would never have been caught dead hanging out with a dork like Gracie before the world ended. Gracie isn’t too crazy about Brandon either, but he has one thing she doesn’t: A plan.

Brandon’s uncle has a cabin up in Maine, and If Gracie and Brandon can survive long enough to get there they can hide out until the Space Men pack up their ships and leave.
Until the army guys come to rescue them, says Brandon.
Brandon is big into army guys.

Gracie has to admit that Brandon’s Awesome Plan probably would have worked out great if wasn't for Jake.
They found 5-year-old Jake, laying half-dead under the remains of someone’s ranch house. He’s a good kid, even if he won’t-or can’t- talk.

But Jake has a secret, and when Gracie finds out what it is, the fragile new life they’ve started to forge looks set to break apart.

When the people you’ve been counting on to put the world back together start hunting you down, alien invaders are the least of your worries.

I was excited to be approved for this book, because it’s been a while since I’ve read a sci-fi book. So imagine my disappointment when I found I just couldn’t keep reading at about 85 pages. And I didn’t make it through those 85 pages because I was super into the story. Probably about 30 of those pages were skimmed.

The prologue was great. I was getting a “The Darkest Minds” vibe from the three kids traveling through a deserted land where anything could be the enemy. I was excited to keep reading.

And then we moved into chapter one.

Chapter one takes us back to before the action really began, and then we sit there, for like, six more chapters. I was mildly intrigued by the fact that there are spaceships just hanging out in the sky, but expecting a reader to be interested by that fact for six chapters and not giving us anything else is a bit much. Even when alien-esque things started happening, it was like, hey, we’re going to hole up in our house and check forums on the internet to see what’s going on.

There was a lot of character set up, I guess, though I didn’t feel like I knew or wanted to know Brandon or Gracie, the two main characters. If we had continued on with the traveling across the country looking for help scenario that we started with in the prologue, I would have been more likely to keep reading. Or at least, something more interesting than sitting around in their houses, waiting for the alien’s to attack and checking tumblr.

Geeze. I really hate not finishing books.