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Lanny, the heroine of The TAKER, admits in the first chapter that she is immortal, but she hasn’t a clue as to how this is possible. It’s this mystery – how is it possible for someone to become immortal? – that helps drive The TAKER.
Lanny grew up at a time and in a place where religion played a large part in daily life and so it’s natural for her to look to religion for an answer to what’s happened to her. Adair, the man who wields the power, claims that it’s not God but science – knowledge of the mysteries of existence – that enables him to grant eternal life. There was a time when such knowledge was thought of as magic and the keepers of such knowledge were persecuted – a time, Adair knows, that may come again.
It’s the conflation of religion, science and magic that form the mystery at the heart of The TAKER. What we’re really talking about are belief systems, how you look at the mysteries of life, how you choose to think of them. Consider, for example, that there was a time when religious beliefs were held as scientific truths – for instance, that the earth was flat and was circled by the sun. Or that some view religion as mere versions of pagan rituals that have been with us since the beginning of time. Or that some people keep science as their religion and will have no other faith in their lives. So, where does one believe system start and the other end?
I’ll tell you now that the answer is not revealed in The TAKER, but if you stay with the series for the next two books, tentatively titled The RECKONING and The DESCENT, the mystery will be explained.
Let’s face it: we women love a bad boy. In our fantasy lives, at least. We’re drawn to a man with a hint of danger, a man who is a bit wild and beyond our control and can make us do something wild, too.
If you’re looking for a book with men who can make your stomach do fillips with one smoldering glance, you’ve come to the right place. At the risk of undercutting the purely literary merits of the novel, I must say that it’s worth reading The TAKER for it’s male characters alone. And because The TAKER is not at all miserly – nothing is held back – I have given you not one but three gorgeous, incorrigible men to choose from:
Jonathan: He’s as beautiful as Adonis but as self-absorbed as Narcissus. It’s impossible not to want him but be forewarned: if you should capture Jonathan’s attention, it’s not likely you have it for very long. Lanny, our heroine, knows it: “Jonathan had the ability to burn me up with the brilliance of his attention, like a flame to paper. A girl could be destroyed in an instant of divine love. The question was, was it worth it?”
Adair: He is the man with otherworldly powers, a man of extremes. He’s got a violent temper and a brilliant mind. He’s savage beauty dressed up in finery, raw sexuality barely contained in a frock coat and cravat. Irresistible and dangerous.
Luke: The good man that everyone says is so hard to find. He gives up everything for Lanny, puts himself in danger for her – and what could be sexier than that?
Okay, so I lied: Luke is not a bad boy. But he is tempting all the same.
There you have it, a line-up of the men of The TAKER. And – because you can never have too many captivating men to choose from – it’s your turn. Tell me about your favorite bad boys of literature in the comment section.
I was concerned that The TAKER’s early American setting would make it less interesting to international readers. Not even most Americans consider America of the early 1800s to be sexy.
I’m happy to report that this doesn’t seem to be a problem; we’ve sold translation rights in several languages, with a few more deals in the works. And I think the reason that The TAKER is finding an international audience is because the book wasn’t written to read like reportage from a specific time in history: it was written to be like a fairy-tale.
The TAKER mostly takes place primarily in two settings. The first is the remote logging town of St. Andrew. The village is cut off it is from the rest of the world every winter, and this creates a sense of isolation, the impression that the town is like a kingdom, a kingdom that lives by its own rules. In this world, the king is Charles St. Andrew, the man who founded the town and owns its most lucrative enterprise, and the crown prince is his son, Jonathan, with whom the novel’s heroine, Lanny, has fallen in love.
The other setting is the city of Boston, but here we are immersed in a hidden world that exists behind the Brahmins’ mansions and the ivy-covered walls of Harvard College. It may be Boston, but the reader is brought into a world where – despite familiar surroundings – unexpected things could happen at any time, just like in Hansel and Gretel’s forest.
Let’s talk about setting: what’s your favorite book in which setting played a key role? What were you drawn to? Was it the feelings that the setting provoked, or was it an accurate rendering of a real place, perhaps a place you know?
One piece of advice a writer gets early in her career is that you must know where your book will sit in the bookstore. Readers know their tastes and gravitate to the section of the bookstore or library where those books can be found. For a book to be discovered by readers, shelving is of paramount importance.
So what happens when you have a novel that doesn’t fit into a category? Publishers are often leery of these books because they can be hard to market. At the same time, these genre-defying books are often the ones that catch fire and become wildly popular because they are so different. They can surpass expectations and grab hold of the reader’s imagination.
Whether you call them multiple genre, hybrid or cross-genre, books of this nature often seem indescribable. It’s my fortune – good or ill – that The TAKER is one of these books. Any attempt to sum it up neatly for readers has failed, and this creates a bit of a problem. People want to know what to expect – and rightly so – before they pay good money for a book. But to try to force it in any one category could be disappointing for fans of that genre. For instance, you couldn’t call it historical, even though it’s set mostly in the past, because it doesn’t really fit the norms of historical fiction. The same could be said of the supernatural aspect of the book: there’s a character with otherworldly powers in The TAKER but does that make it fantasy? Paranormal? Horror? Or all of these?
As I’ve struggled with the problem of defining The TAKER, I’ve thought of other category-defying writers such as Diana Gabaldon, who has been outspoken about her unconventional OUTLANDER series, which probably has been shelved in every section of the bookstore at one time or another. Sarah Waters is another author who comes to mind, whose TIPPING THE VELVET and FINGERSMITH – books that have been described as lesbian historicals and lesbian picaresque – share shelf space with her last novel, THE LITTLE STRANGER, a gothic historical horror story. Consider also Carlos Ruiz Zafon, whose magical novels have been labeled literary, thriller, suspense and horror.
What springs to my mind about each of these authors is that there is an unmistakable character to their works. You might not be able to categorize Sarah Waters’ work but you know a Sarah Waters’ novel when you read it, and the same can be said for Gabaldon and Zafon. Though their books may incorporate elements of different genres, they each stand whole and complete and satisfying: perfect stories that couldn’t be told any other way.
And I hope you’ll feel this way about The TAKER.
The TAKER is the story of Lanore McIlvrae, a young woman who grows up in a small town in the great north woods of the territory of Maine in the early part of the 1800s. Lanore has the misfortune to fall in love with Jonathan, the eldest son of the wealthiest family in town. Coming from a poor family, she knows she will not be allowed to marry Jonathan but she can’t accept this, and so when a mysterious man makes it possible for Lanore to bind Jonathan to her forever, she accepts his offer. It’s not until afterwards that she understands what a terrible bargain she’s made, and that she must find a way to save her beloved – and herself.
Life is a mystery to Lanny, as it is for many of us when we’re young. She’s in a hurry to grow up; she wants to be in an adult relationship, for example, but she’s not really sure what that means. She lives during a time when women had few choices and she wants more, but she’s not sure what it is that she wants. She makes bad choices, but let’s not fool ourselves: Many people make bad choices when they’re young. We make mistakes and we learn from them – or we let fear keep us from taking chances and we remain in a state of desperation. No one is born with the answers and we have only this one life to find fulfillment and happiness. Because of her boldness, Lanore learns of a hidden world that few people will ever know. But Lanore’s bad choices have consequences, quite dire ones.
The TAKER has been called an “epic supernatural love story,” part fairy tale, part page-turner and part fantasy. At its heart, The TAKER is a love story, but a story about love in all its forms, it’s ecstatic highs and its shattering lows.
If you’ll indulge me for one more minute, here are a few things some incredibly generous writers have said about The TAKER:
“Alma Katsu’s searing tale of otherworldly lovers and eternal obsession will seduce you from page one. With its elegant prose and riveting plot, The TAKER is irresistible…. A wicked, sensuous, shattering love story that I can’t recommend highly enough!”
—Kresley Cole, bestselling author
“What a wonderful book! A dark, gothic epic worth savoring. A sweeping story that transcends time as it moves effortlessly from the tempestuous past to the frightening present. Enchanting and enthralling! No question – I was taken!”
—MJ Rose, international bestselling author
If this sounds like your kind of book, I hope you’ll give The TAKER a try.
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