The Taker

As many of my book related posts begin, today at lunch I finished The Taker, by J.M. Steele. Hyperion Books for Children, the link provided with J.M. Steele, notes the name is a pseudonym for "two New York entertainment industry professionals, neither of whom aced the SAT’s."

The Taker is the story of Carly, a high school junior, who suffers from test anxiety, has taken the SAT and earned a less than stellar score. Pressured by her parents to score well and attend a good school, her father is an alumnus of Princeton, Carly is at a loss how to handle the outside pressures and retake the test. Out of the blue, Carly receives a text message on her cell phone from "the Taker" who, for a price, will take the test for her and guarantees she gets a better score. He does not want money, but will ask for payment of another kind to be named later, and informs Carly she has to get a tutor and maintain that she is studying for the SAT so no one will be suspicious when her scores increase. Carly agrees to "the taker's" terms, setting in motion a chain of events that accurately reflect teenage life.

Carly has typical teenage problems with popularity which are exemplified by demands from her BMOC lacrosse playing boyfriend, the necessity of working with a nerdy SAT tutor, issues with a smarmy instructor conducting her SAT study course, and the fact that one of her best friends is working on an expose for the school newspaper regarding the increase in SAT test scores happening in their town. Steele's depiction of teenage life is on target. Carly is a popular girl who is a bit selfish, but not without redeeming qualities. It would be easy for secondary characters such as Carly's boyfriend Brad and her tutor Ronald to be clichés; this is not the case as each character is an individual with some depth, such as it is.

The story moves along quickly, but the resolution of the SAT cheating ring and subsequent revelation of "the Taker's" identity are somewhat anticlimactic, almost too easy. I would like to have seen repercussions of some sort for Carly's plan to cheat on the SAT, even though she reconsiders and takes the test herself. Any teenager planning to take the SAT will understand Carly's dilemma and the pressures related to taking a test that has the ability to change the rest of your life, all of which ring true in this book.

Tags: J.M. Steele, The Taker, Young adult fiction, SAT, YA Literature