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Given Hoffman is a writer who loves suspense and stories with significance. Given writes not just to entertain but to exhort the vast community of significant, influential, and expressive young people of today to do and be more than what the world expects of them. She wrote The Eighth Ransom because she believes, that even if the teen market is smaller, teens still deserve to have good fiction writer for them that speaks to them.
Reviewed by Kim Anisi for Readers' Favorite
The bad guys’ original plan in The Eighth Ransom by Given Hoffman was to kidnap seven children – each the daughter or son of an influential, rich, or particularly skilled person. However, Trent, a rebellious, moody, cocky teenage boy, got involved because his curiosity got the better of him. He ended up being the eighth kidnapped kid, with his step-sister being one of the original seven. The other kids have nothing in common, and their parents are also as different as night and day. However, the kids are clever enough to figure out that everything is somehow connected to an odd cooperation between Russians and Arabs. They are taken to a secret place outside the US, with security they could not possibly overcome – and with the knowledge that they might not make it out of the situation alive.
I was surprised about where the plot of The Eighth Ransom was going after the first half. I can’t give much away here because it would ruin the reading experience, but I had the initial idea that after a certain event the story would be over. But there was more to come and I found it very interesting and entertaining to read – and there were plenty of surprises along the way. This story was so much more than I expected, and the characters with their individual problems and attitudes were very well done! I wasn’t a big fan of the constant Christian references, especially because it seems a little weird for kids that age to be that religious and convinced about the “truth”, but I guess it worked in the mix of characters. Apart from that, it was an excellent read with interesting developments I did not expect! The Eighth Ransom was hard to put down because you really wanted to know what would happen to each individual.
