ABDUCTED

In Ash’s YA debut and series opener, a 16-year-old girl takes on merciless aliens threatening the people she loves.

Abigail Ashby’s social status is at a low point in her small New Mexico town. Her star football player boyfriend, Taylor Rooksand, has been exiled to a boarding school as punishment for a prank. Abigail also openly sides with her best friend, Harris Barnett; they’re the only people who believe his father’s claims that aliens abducted him and his still-missing wife. Evidently, those aliens have unfinished business—they return to grab Harris, and, because she’s in the same room, Abigail as well. The friends wind up on a spaceship hovering over the Earth. The two are separated, but Abigail uses her training (courtesy of her sheriff father) and her wit to attempt an escape with Harris. Meanwhile, back on the ground, Taylor reluctantly forms an alliance with Sheriff Ashby, who doesn’t hide his contempt for the troublemaking teen; they grudgingly work together to save Abigail, though she certainly isn’t just waiting around for help to arrive. Ash’s impeccably paced yarn deftly establishes characters and backstories in the early scenes and continues to develop them throughout the plentiful action sequences (Abigail, for example, is at odds with her father, who practically smothers her with his overprotectiveness). The altruistic and fearless young protagonist thrillingly faces off against cruel, sometimes monstrous beings (“Its elongated maw dripped with dark, oily fluid, and its hairless, jet-black skin was stretched over bones that jutted out at sharp angles”) and braves hostile environments like an unnerving “forest” aboard the spaceship. Even the romance angle proves engaging; Harris’ affection for his childhood friend creates a love triangle and saddles Abigail with a tough choice (Taylor isn’t as bad as the sheriff believes him to be). The narrative’s suspense is blunted somewhat by the way Abigail easily uses every alien weapon or piece of tech she gets her hands on (as does Taylor, battling threats on Earth); the fight scenes end quickly and cleanly, as if the teens are merely playing a video game. But that surely won’t stop readers from anticipating sequels and more adventures with Abigail.

This sprightly SF adventure boasts an infectiously plucky hero.