Take Me with You
Tara Altebrando
Bloomsbury YA
Published June 23, 2020
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About Take Me with You
Eden, Eli, Marwan, and Ilanka barely know each other beyond having a class or two together. But when they are all summoned via messaging app to an empty classroom after school, they find a small cube sitting on a desk. Its sides light up with rules for them:
Do not tell anyone about the device. Never leave the device unattended.
And then, Take me with you . . . or else.
At first they think it’s some kind of prank or a social experiment orchestrated by the school administration. Still, they follow its instructions until the newly-formed group starts to splinter. Nobody has time for these games–their lives are complicated enough. But the device seems increasingly invested in the private details of their lives. And disobeying its rules has scary–even life-threatening–consequences . . .
My Review
You know you’re in for a wild ride when an author creates a simple black cube and makes it creepy as all get out. I had no idea what I was in for when I started TAKE ME WITH YOU.
As soon as Eden took the cube, I knew I was hooked. I sneaked in a few pages between things I had to get done. Anytime I had a couple minutes, I was right back in the pages of the book.
Eden and Marwan are my favorites. I loved the fact that we got to see what they were each thinking about each other but not brave enough to say. And I loved that even though the cube opened up a nightmare for all the people involved, it also forced people who were isolated in different ways to take risks and form friendships. That part was really cool.
I think I stayed on the edge of my seat with this book all the way until the end. It’s definitely the kind of book where you just want there to be another chapter that really, finally, explicitly says what you’ve hoped will happen. But all the possibilities are there, and there’s something really sweet in leaving the story with that kind of open doorway to something great.
I really enjoyed TAKE ME WITH YOU. I’m not usually a big suspense reader, but I definitely enjoyed this book a lot. I think fans of WE DIDN’T ASK FOR THIS by Adi Alsaid or THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS by Marieke Nijkamp will like this book.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 14 up.
Representation
Marwan’s famiy is culturally Muslim. His parents are from Egypt. Ilanka’s family is Russian.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content
Description of kissing between boy and girl. He asks for her to send him a “fun” picture. She takes a picture of herself in a bra and considers sending it to him.
Spiritual Content
Marwan and his family are Muslim but not practicing.
Violent Content
Someone throws eggs at and a rock through the window of Marwan’s family’s restaurant. A racial group name appears in spray paint on the sidewalk near the restaurant.
Drug Content
Parents drink alcohol socially.
Note: I received a free copy of TAKE ME WITH YOU in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog.
