TITLE: The Takedown
AUTHOR: Corrie Wang
PUBLISHER: Freeform
PUBLISHED DATE: April 11, 2017
ISBN: 978-1484757420
PAGES: 384
Overall, I liked this book. There were things I liked, and things I didn't, but overall it's solid.
The Good: At its core, The Takedown is a futuristic novel about modern feminism. A cyber terrorist creates a video using Kyla's image allegedly having sex with her teacher. Kyla becomes instantly famous as her life unravels. She has the envy and sympathy of her friends, the disgust of her crush, the disappointment of her parents, and the seeming end of her academic and professional future. In this modern New York City, people's whole lives are attached to their "docs" and all images of a person are merely a click away from anyone in the world. Kyla decides to track down her hater and reclaim her identity. Inspired by a woman president, her nerd-chic turned fashionista mother, and a small crew of "mean girl" friends, Kyla contemplates a young woman's ability to own her sexuality. Kyla has to sift through her own judgments in order to get clear about a woman's right to choose modesty or sex positivity. The novel is diverse - it's an ethnicity soup. The only character who actually wears his ethnicity is Kyla's crush, Mackenzie Rodriguez, who speaks Spanish and English interchangeably. Somehow everyone magically understands him. Best character of the book was Kyla's dad. A former leader of a Chinese gang in Flushing Queens turned swaggalicious librarian was what I never knew I needed in my life. I'd like to order 300 copies of THAT book, please!
The Bad: The language is written in an SMS vernacular. This seems fun at first, and then it gets confusing - especially when there are a lot of characters and initials of characters used - and lots of text messaging. If you put this book down for a second, you'll feel like you need to re-read or keep a journal of names to keep up with who is who. It doesn't help that many characters have similar initials, and the main character, Kyla, has a brother named Kyle...UGH! This is a who-done-it...and I kind of wanted to fast forward parts.
This is a book with a unique and timely message. Revenge porn and the sharing of nude pics that were meant to be private is a real thing. I don't think I've read a book tackling this subject in this way. It does make for an interesting read, and I'm sure a lot of teens will find this book satisfying.
Gigantic Mystery Box Unboxing by Elizziebooks
Recommendation: Read it!
Audience: Young Adults and up
*This book was recieved as an ARC on Netgalley