Review: Take Me with You

Take Me with You by Tara Altebrando
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Eden, Eli, Ilanka, and Marwan all receive a notification from a teacher to meet in a classroom after school.  They all arrive, yet there is no teacher … just a small cube resting on the desk.  They aren’t sure what they should do or why they were called to this classroom, but then the cube lights up and gives them some rules:  they aren’t to tell anyone about the device, they should never leave the device unattended and they need to take the cube with them.  They don’t know if this is a prank or some sort of experiment, but they follow the rules … or at least try to.  The cube keeps adding new rules that make the group interactions even more complicated.  What is this cube and what will it eventually expect from these teens?

Take Me with You is a stand-alone novel that is part thriller, part science fiction, and part coming of age story. Just like the cube doesn’t fit neatly in these teens' preconceived ideas, this novel doesn’t fit any one genre either.  Altebrando has created a story with so much potential, yet it just falls flat.  The ending was anticlimactic and I lost interest about halfway through.  It wasn’t a long read, so I don’t feel like it was a waste of time, but it isn’t a book I can strongly recommend to everyone.  A fun read, just not a great read. 

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