Stolen: A Letter to my Captor by Lucy Christopher

 

Synopsis:

It happened like this. I was stolen from an airport. Taken from everything I knew, everything I was used to. Taken to sand and heat, dirt and danger. And he expected me to love him.

This is my story.

A letter from nowhere.

Sixteen year old Gemma is kidnapped from Bangkok airport and taken to the Australian Outback. This wild and desolate landscape becomes almost a character in the book, so vividly is it described. Ty, her captor, is no stereotype. He is young, fit and completely gorgeous. This new life in the wilderness has been years in the planning. He loves only her, wants only her. Under the hot glare of the Australian sun, cut off from the world outside, can the force of his love make Gemma love him back?

The story takes the form of a letter, written by Gemma to Ty, reflecting on those strange and disturbing months in the outback. Months when the lines between love and obsession, and love and dependency, blur until they don't exist - almost.

Source for synopsis and image: www.goodreads.com

Overall Review:

    This really isn’t normally the kind of book I’d read. It’s not that I’m opposed to books with darker topics, but I’m usually pretty hesitant to read books that are written in letter form. It’s not really the style I’d prefer, so I probably wouldn’t have chosen to read this book on my own. But I asked one of my friends from school (not Kalee) for a recommendation of something to read, and she immediately started raving about this amazing book she was reading. She insisted that I read it so that we could talk about it after, and I did, and it was . . . definitely not what I expected.

    The storyline is supposed to be about a girl who gets kidnapped and taken to the Australian Outback. It’s kind of a darker topic, but I think that Lucy Christopher handled it fairly well.

    When I started this book, I expected it to be this totally scary, creepy book about what happens when a girl is kidnapped by some scary, creepy guy. I expected it to be dark and kind of hard to get through at times. But although some aspects of it were definitely unsettling, I found myself feeling a lot more conflicted about the storyline than I expected to feel.

    A lot of times, TV shows and books show things like this in black and white: kidnapping = horrible. Kidnappers = disgusting. Kidnappers going to jail = great, end-of-story, everything-wrapped-up-in-a-nice-little-bow perfect. And although I don’t necessarily disagree with this philosophy, this book gave me more mixed feelings than other storylines using this concept usually do. I had a hard time seeing the “bad guy” as a bad guy (lol that reminds me of Wreck-It Ralph--“. . . you are bad guy, but this does not mean you are bad guy”). I kind of felt for him even though I wanted to hate him for this awful thing that he did.

Maybe it’s because he truly believed that he was doing the right thing. Maybe it’s because the main character didn’t even really know what to think of him. I don’t know. But I think it’s really impressive that the author could make a seemingly obviously bad person seem like a not-so-bad person after all.

After I finished the book, I was still feeling conflicted about the book. I wasn’t really sure what to think. I didn’t feel satisfied--even though I probably would have if the storyline wasn’t so debatable. It does make for good discussion, though. Maybe if Kalee reads it, then we can write a post that discusses our opinions on the book.

The book definitely made a lasting impression on me, so that’s good. I was thinking about it long after I’d finished. And the letter form of the story turned out to be a really good fit for the type of book it was.

The main character was decent. She seemed nice enough, and she was pretty brave.

. . . that’s pretty much all I remember about her. She wasn’t really the most intriguing person, in my opinion. But she was strong, mentally and (I guess?) physically. So I liked her okay.

In conclusion, although the book didn’t necessarily leave me satisfied, it was definitely an interesting and surprising read. I’d recommend it to anyone who likes books that really make them think. Maybe book clubs, too. It’s interesting to talk about with your friends (is that what people do at book clubs? I’m just assuming . . . I’ve never been part of one).

Sorry this review wasn’t really enthusiastic, but I didn’t feel very strongly about it one way or another. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t absolutely love it either. It was interesting and something to think about, but I’m not sure I’d read it again. Still, I don’t regret giving it a try.

Thanks for reading,

JC <3

P.S. Sorry we haven’t really been posting. :)

P.P.S. Do you guys have any suggestions for more reviews?

P.P.P.S. Shucks, I forgot the rating again. I’d give this book a 7.8 out of 10. Not bad, but not amazing. Okay, thanks for reading (again), and bye (for real this time)!