The Taking

There's not a lot of violence in The Taking. National Security agents threaten Kyra and Tyler at gunpoint, and Kyra beans one of them with a super-fast baseball pitch. A government agent commits suicide with a handgun, but the action is implied and not shown,

Kyra spends a lot of time and energy discussing her attraction to her boyfriend Austin and later to his younger brother Tyler. Hardly a scene goes by without some comment about how handsome one or the other boy is. Before she disappeared, Kyra and Austin were in the habit of her sneaking out of her house to spend the night in his bed (the implication being that they were not sexually intimate). Tyler begins flirting with the newly reappeared Kyra almost immediately. They eventually take time to kiss and make out. They share a motel room but only because they're being chased by sinister government agents.

The language in The Taking is a bit rougher than one might expect. "Hell," "pissed," and "damn" are employed too frequently to count. "S--t," "p---y," "f--k," "d--k," and "a--hole" each are used a time or two, usually in scenes of great tension.

Kyra remembers a time when she and her best friend got drunk on tequila shots and suffered a hangover the next day. An older female supporting character chews tobacco, and Kyra recalls the one time she tried it.

Parents need to know that The Taking is a smart and well-told science-fiction thriller about a high school student who loses five years of her life seemingly overnight. The premise is intriguing and carefully explored, and Kyra and her new boyfriend, Tyler, are depicted with wit and insight. There's more strong language than one might expect -- "hell," "pissed," and "damn" are employed frequently; "s--t," and "f--k" are used a time or two, usually in scenes of great tension. Violence in the book is more often implied that shown (including a suicide), although there is some gunplay. In terms of sexual content, 16-year-old Kyra spends a lot of time fixated on the attractiveness of her boyfriends, especial Tyler. She shares a bed with Tyler, but no sexual intimacy is implied.