<i>Captive</i> is the debut young adult thriller by British author A. J. Grainger. Set in contemporary Britain, sixteen-year-old Robyn, the daughter of the Prime Minister, is kidnapped and held hostage by three animal rights activists. Until the government agrees to release the person accused of the attempted assassination of the PM four month previously, they refuse to free Robyn from captivity. It soon becomes clear that a lot of lies and cover-ups have been occurring and it is difficult to know whom to trust.
The novel gets off to a great start with a lot of action as Robyn and her family is ambushed on their way to visit grandparents. The first half of the book is really exciting as the reader slowly gets to grips with what is going on.
Grainger writes really well with great use of descriptive words and phrases. To keep the reader engaged and to lengthen the story she includes other interesting details that are educational in a way – for example, knowledge about birds.
Unfortunately the second half of the book is not as exciting as the first. A relationship starts developing between Robyn and one of the captors, which is rather unoriginal and predictable.
One thing that I particularly liked about this novel was Robyn’s character. Naturally people may expect daughters of prime ministers to be snobbish and spoilt but Robyn was the complete opposite. She did not care about where her clothes came from or whether or not she went to parties. Robyn was the representation of the average teenage girl preparing for her GCSEs.
Despite the clichéd captor/hostage situation <i>Captive</i> is a very enjoyable novel with a few exhilarating twists in the plot.
David McK (3495 KP) rated Highwayman: War's End in Books
Mar 29, 2020
In this one, Lyle finds himself hunting down a stolen possession, in a bid to return it to its rightful owner who has taken hostage of the son of an old friend, with that owner believing that said son had stolen it (he hasn't).
With only - roughly - five chapters, each chapter is given over to one day in the week of Lyle's efforts to retrieve the item, culminating in a fight on Portsmouth Point and with key recurring players from the previous two novellas also getting an appearance.
Of necessity (because of the length), there's therefore not much room for plot in this one: It's a pretty straightforward tale of derring do!
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