The Taking

by Becky Johnson

In the peaceful, isolated town of Heritage, life is idyllic. Or so it seems. The perfect small town is hiding a dark secret. Their peace comes at a price. Dark creatures haunt Heritage, and on the night of the Taking, no one is safe.The citizens of Heritage find safety in following the no bright colors, stay inside after dark, and obey the Mayor, but this Taking the rules aren’t going to protect everyone.One night, five people, and the Takers.

290 pages, Paperback

Published October 15, 2018

About the author

Books are my passion and always have been. I used to get in trouble in school for reading during class!
I have degrees in social work and history, and for my day job I am a social worker. In my writing I try to answer a question that is important to both social work and history, why. I always want to know why people do the things they do or feel the way they feel.
When I am not reading or writing I enjoy yoga, running and cooking. I make a pretty mean chili!
Thank you for stopping by my goodreads page. I hope you enjoy my stories.

Reviews

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was one of those randomly selected Kindle freebies and for what it was…decent enough. The premise is relatively familiar…a small community must make live sacrifices to mysterious beings in order to survive and prosper. Logistically that mean sacrificing one of their own every month and presumably the community is relatively small, so this is quite dire. Some might say unfeasible, but this is fiction and all. The orchestrator of all this is the town’s mayor, soon revealed to be a hypocritical authoritarian demagogue. For generations his family has controlled and conducted the sacrifices and only now (somehow, but suspend your disbelief) some locals are beginning to question the situation. Tonight is the night they will rebel against The Taking. So…that’s the entire story, a story as it turns out (in the author’s afterword) inspired by the 2016 US election. The moral is very heavy handed, the entire story comes across more as a fable than a supernatural small town nightmare sort of thing. But there you have it…authoritarian regimes are terrible and yet the world seems to be leaning in that direction tower of Pisa style. And it’ll probably take more than mediocre fictional parables to fight, but maybe it’s the effort that counts. Otherwise just a quick fairly bland read with somewhat above average likability wise young (and old) characters. And it was free.

[Johanna Parker-Robbins · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Taking” by Becky Johnson is the first book I’ve read by this author, and I like how different it was from many others I’ve read lately—memorable and evocative and seriously mind-bending at times. I almost didn’t want to put it down at times, especially in the second half, because I wanted to know what would happen next – exactly who/what the “Takers” were, and who was masterminding it or why it happened. Having a sacrifice every month to be ‘safe’ seems pretty extreme though, and I think it would have been more convincing had the rest of the outside world be more of a horrifying dystopian instead of things like ‘immorality’ or ‘drugs’ or ‘crops and weather’… Because despite life’s challenges many people have very happy healthy lives and the thought of potentially sacrificing a friend, family member or loved one EVERY MONTH in a small town seems a little hard to swallow. But I did like the concept and all the different characters’ interweaving plotlines are complex, well-thought out, and weird enough to keep you hooked and wondering what is really going on. This is a standalone book (not part of a series) but a fun read that will make you wonder and creep you out.

[Ken Finlay · Rating 2 out of 5]

"The Taking" is part horror, part paranormal and part polemic.
The small town of Heritage continually prospers but it comes at a cost - the sacrifice of one person every month.
The person is chosen by the Mayor and left in the street for the Takers.
It's been that way as long as anyone can remember but this time it is different. The Takers want more, much more.
A small group try to fight back, with varying results.
It all hinges on the Mayor who preaches that even more sacrifices are necessary for the good of the town.
The author, Becky Johnson, writes "I am trying to show the damage that can occur when power, religion, and fear become tools used to control."
The plot seemed very familiar - I have definitely read something very similar in the last year or so - and the reasoning didn't quite work for me.
2.5 Stars, reduced to 2 Stars.

[Wendy Helzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this very much. From the moment I picked it up it was hard to put down. I love the format, the story and the characters. Very good!