I had to get real with myself and say, “Jana… he kidnapped her. We get to watch her as she goes from hating him with everything she had to almost loving him. We know exactly how everything impacted her, and we get to see the evolution of her going from fight mode to complacency mode to sympathetic mode. We get to read her thoughts and her interpretations and her feelings about everything that happened while they were together in the Australian Outback. She actually talks to him, telling him her entire story as if he wasn’t there. The entire book is written as a letter from Gemma to her captor after her rescue, and I loved that about it. Stolen is a very unique take on the typical kidnapping/crime novel. Stolen really made me think, and I think that that’s what I loved most about it. And if these victims can survive and bring good from their experience (I’m thinking of people like Elizabeth Smart), then I can survive my own life too. These stories remind me that I’m safe and I’m loved. I sometimes get bogged down in my own life and forget to be thankful for what I do have. I enjoy reading the stories of the survivors because I find them to be hopeful and inspiring. I’ve always had a weird fascination with kidnapping stories. Months when the lines between love and obsession, and love and dependency, blur until they don't exist-almost. The story takes the form of a letter, written by Gemma to Ty, reflecting on those strange and disturbing months in the outback. 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? This new life in the wilderness has been years in the planning. He is young, fit and completely gorgeous. This wild and desolate landscape becomes almost a character in the book, so vividly is it described. Sixteen-year-old Gemma is kidnapped from Bangkok airport and taken to the Australian Outback. Taken from everything I knew, everything I was used to. Published by Chicken House on May 4, 2009

Stolen: A Letter to My Captor by Lucy Christopher

Stolen lucy