Why You Were Taken (Paperback)

Reviews

"Punchy, fast paced, unputdownable" by kimstories - 26 April 2016

Set in the near future South Africa, this wonderfully written and completely gripping tale of draught stricken, fertility problem besieged Johannesburg is frightening familiar and horrifying realistic. There but for few decisions go us. Or maybe there because of a few decisions go us. Kirsten (or is it Kate) is a talented photographer and synaesthete – she sees sounds, tastes colours, feels words – living in 2021 Johannesburg with her Marmalade James and a Black Hole where part of her heart and all her childhood memories should be. Her best friend Keke, a journalist, starts to discover some oddities in the story of Kirsten’s past. And then there is Seth, math genius renegade man with a **** the establishment attitude and the smarts to get away with it. Slowly how these people are connected for good and bad is revealed as Kirsten and Keke investigate Kirsten’s murky past. The book drags the reader along, often late into the night when you know you should be sleeping. When the climax starts to build there is no way you can put the book down until it is done. I read the last 35% (kindle obvs) in one sitting, ignoring everything around me, because putting it down was just not an option. Lawrence’s future South Africa will resonate with South Africans but is also familiar enough as a city to not alienate non-South African readers. I think this is such a valuable skill in South African authors – we want books that are ours but that are also accessible to everyone else. Lawrence nails this perfectly. Lawrence’s vivid scenes had me thinking I wanted to get back to that movie I was watching – oh wait, it’s a book – on more than one occasion. I did find the present tense writing jarring on occasion; it is not my favourite style of writing. I would not notice for ages and then something would suddenly make me aware of it. I kept one example: ‘It was only 2pm but he felt like he had done enough grind for the day. He stands up, ready to head home.’ It feels like the tenses are mixed there. They probably aren’t and it is probably grammatically correct, but it just felt uncomfortable. The words didn’t sit well. But the fact that this occasionally pulled me up short means that the rest of the time either I was so involved in the story I didn’t care or notice, or that it happened only occasionally. Either way, it doesn’t really distract from the story and only a pedant, like me, might notice. It felt to me that Lawrence has certainly read Beukes but I think she writes Beukes off the page. If this book is not made into a movie it will be very sad indeed. It’s punchy, interesting, human and fast paced and very well written. It’s a winner!