As a book reviewer, I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher or author to facilitate this review. I received no other compensation, and all opinions are always 100% my own.
Maggie Wang is a young, aspiring writer who wants to tell her story. Born to immigrant parents who worked long hours just to survive, her childhood included a fair amount of trauma due to abusive caregivers. She watches in frustration as her classmates effortlessly sprint up the ladder to success, and her boyfriend sleeps his way to a book deal. Maggie is hungry for even a crumb of acknowledgment, and she’s broke and stressed about her parents’ medical bills.
Meanwhile Ingrid Parker is dealing with misogyny compounded by aging. Although she’s successfully produced 14 films, she still has to fight all the time just to be heard. It doesn’t help that her husband has started sleeping around with younger women. So when her doctor presents her with an alternative medicine that involves trading blood with a younger woman and reversing her age, she jumps at the chance.
Maggie is ready–both for the $3 million and for the unmatched access to a successful movie producer. But the thing is, can you ethically take someone else’s youth, even if they’ve said yes to it? The deal is that Maggie will age 10 years while Ingrid reverse-ages an equal 10, but the results are much more than either woman bargained for. Ingrid’s character can be selfish and manipulative, but she’s also had to work so much harder to succeed in the business just to be someone who can be instantly cast off. And it can be argued that Maggie is also using Ingrid to promote her own career. Where does this tangled mess begin and end?
The Take manages to be a great read–fast-paced, well plotted–and a thought-provoking treatise on aging, misogyny, agism and classism, and what we’ll all do for success. Told from both Maggie’s and Ingrid’s points of view, the novel doesn’t sugarcoat its character’s more unseemly sides, as both women grasp for success and Ingrid in particular is good at justifying her actions in her own head. Entertaining and intriguing, the novel presents no easy answers, but a very satisfying ending. Highly recommended!
