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Abducted
Trapped aboard a living spacecraft hidden above her hometown, a teenage outcast must wage a one-girl war against ruthless alien mercenaries to save her best friend... before the ship jumps into deep space.
THEY TOOK THE WRONG SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD.
Abigail Ashby was raised to be a weapon by a father convinced the world was on the brink of collapse. Then, inexplicably, he forced her into early retirement—aka high school.
Now Abigail's only battles are defending Harris, her outcast best friend who swears his parents were abducted by aliens. She is secretly sure he’s delusional—right up until his bedroom explodes in amethyst light.
She wakes up aboard the Beast’s Burden, an interstellar warship lurking above their town. Its leader, a sadistic warlord, seizes Harris as his prize, while Abigail slips away in the chaos—overlooked, underestimated.
Until she kills an alien to survive.
Hunted through the ship’s living corridors, Abigail must make a retreat into the shadows, or unleash the lethal training she buried to wage a one-girl war. Because Harris isn’t just a hostage. He’s the trigger for humanity’s extinction.
THEY TOOK THE WRONG SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD.
Abigail Ashby was raised to be a weapon by a father convinced the world was on the brink of collapse. Then, inexplicably, he forced her into early retirement—aka high school.
Now Abigail's only battles are defending Harris, her outcast best friend who swears his parents were abducted by aliens. She is secretly sure he’s delusional—right up until his bedroom explodes in amethyst light.
She wakes up aboard the Beast’s Burden, an interstellar warship lurking above their town. Its leader, a sadistic warlord, seizes Harris as his prize, while Abigail slips away in the chaos—overlooked, underestimated.
Until she kills an alien to survive.
Hunted through the ship’s living corridors, Abigail must make a retreat into the shadows, or unleash the lethal training she buried to wage a one-girl war. Because Harris isn’t just a hostage. He’s the trigger for humanity’s extinction.
312 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 22, 2026
About the author
J.S. Ash
1 book11 followersJ.S. Ash has spent over a decade working in media at one of the largest tech companies in the world, though his true love remains storytelling. Originally written as a screenplay, his debut novel Abducted reflects his creative DNA: a blend of 90s blockbuster action cinema, console gaming, and high-stakes teen melodrama. He lives in Canada with his wife and daughter, the inspirations for the resilient heroines in his stories.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Author
Abigail Ashby is sixteen, chronically grounded, and tired of being treated like an annex of her sheriff father, until the night she sneaks out to be there for her best friend, Harris Barnett, whose parents vanished and whose dad returned claiming an alien abduction. One reckless, emotionally tangled evening later, Abigail and Harris are pulled into something brutally literal: a living ship called The Beast’s Burden, built on an organism that has to “recharge” in Earth’s atmosphere, with a sadist named Phaust steering the cruelty. What follows is part survival-run, part rescue mission, part coming-of-age under fluorescent terror, Abigail clawing for agency while the people she loves become both ballast and blade.
I didn’t expect the opening to feel so teen-soap, with the sharp social pain, the humiliations, the almost-kiss interrupted at precisely the wrong moment, and then for the book to pivot and simply drop the floor out from under it. The contrast is the point: it’s not just “small town” versus “space,” it’s the way adolescent feelings already behave like an alien environment. When the sci-fi horror arrives, it doesn’t replace the emotional stakes; it weaponizes them. Even the recurring idea of instincts you’re trained to bury becomes a practical matter, not a motivational poster but something you either exhume in time, or you don’t.
My strongest reaction was how physical the danger feels. Slick membranes, crackling amethyst energy, the sense that the ship itself is an organism with moods. The action often reads like panic with choreography: fast, messy, but strangely lucid. And I appreciated that the book doesn’t let bravery stay clean. Abigail’s competence isn’t a glow-up montage; it’s bought with hard choices and aftertaste, including a recurring question of what “hero” means when survival requires spilling a lot of not-your-blood. The adult plotline running alongside, Donovan Barnett’s history aboard the ship, and the grim science of what was done to him and his wife, adds a darker undertow that kept me reading.
If you like YA science fiction, alien abduction, action-adventure thriller, and romance that refuses to be tidy, this is aimed squarely at you, especially if you enjoy stories where a heroine’s self-trust is as important as her weapon. In vibe, it reminded me of The 5th Wave-era tension (ordinary teen life interrupted by invasive, uncanny war), but with a meaner streak of body-horror and a more intimate fixation on loyalty as a survival skill.
I didn’t expect the opening to feel so teen-soap, with the sharp social pain, the humiliations, the almost-kiss interrupted at precisely the wrong moment, and then for the book to pivot and simply drop the floor out from under it. The contrast is the point: it’s not just “small town” versus “space,” it’s the way adolescent feelings already behave like an alien environment. When the sci-fi horror arrives, it doesn’t replace the emotional stakes; it weaponizes them. Even the recurring idea of instincts you’re trained to bury becomes a practical matter, not a motivational poster but something you either exhume in time, or you don’t.
My strongest reaction was how physical the danger feels. Slick membranes, crackling amethyst energy, the sense that the ship itself is an organism with moods. The action often reads like panic with choreography: fast, messy, but strangely lucid. And I appreciated that the book doesn’t let bravery stay clean. Abigail’s competence isn’t a glow-up montage; it’s bought with hard choices and aftertaste, including a recurring question of what “hero” means when survival requires spilling a lot of not-your-blood. The adult plotline running alongside, Donovan Barnett’s history aboard the ship, and the grim science of what was done to him and his wife, adds a darker undertow that kept me reading.
If you like YA science fiction, alien abduction, action-adventure thriller, and romance that refuses to be tidy, this is aimed squarely at you, especially if you enjoy stories where a heroine’s self-trust is as important as her weapon. In vibe, it reminded me of The 5th Wave-era tension (ordinary teen life interrupted by invasive, uncanny war), but with a meaner streak of body-horror and a more intimate fixation on loyalty as a survival skill.
Review of advance copy
She had been trained by her father to be a weapon until she is forced to go to high school. There her friend is an outcast as they tell her their parents were taken by aliens. She will soon find out it was all real. Now she is on an alien ship and she needs to decide what to do. Fight or hide. See how she gets on
I received an advance copy from hidden gems and what a brilliant read
I received an advance copy from hidden gems and what a brilliant read
May 3, 2026
Beginning of a great YA alien abduction series
The female main character is shown to have great character development. The possibility of two love interests gives the reader a chance to feel for the boys and root for the female lead to kick some alien butt. Well paced. It kept me coming back and made me feel for the characters.
The female main character is shown to have great character development. The possibility of two love interests gives the reader a chance to feel for the boys and root for the female lead to kick some alien butt. Well paced. It kept me coming back and made me feel for the characters.
February 22, 2026
Received an advance copy of this. The whole time I was reading I could see myself watching this as a streaming show. Didn't see the twists coming at all! Turn this into a streaming show now please!
February 22, 2026
Great ya thriller science fiction story good story good character writing they feel real I enjoyed the action
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews