Stolen

I can't write this review in my usual format. This book doesn't really have the usual linear plot, so its pacing is different than most, and while it has some other characters, it's really about Ty and Gemma and their experience with the Australian Outback. It's not a romance either. Not really. What I loved most about this book was the writing. I've read several reviews which refer to the writing as "purple," but it never read that way to me. Maggie Stiefvater read and recommended this book; Maggie Stiefvater referred to leaves in The Raven Boys as claws. I love her figurative, lyrical writing, and I love Laini Taylor's prose too, but those are more purple than that of Lucy Christopher. The writing in Stolen reads to me as poetic mixed with a scientific style. She uses several similes, but she also uses a lot of symbolic (and vivid) imagery and the occasional epithet to describe the sounds, smells -- the ordinary, empirical details of the life surrounding Ty and Gemma. There's a sensual quality in the writing that helps bring the setting to life. "Lets face it, you did steal me. But you saved my life too. And somewhere in the middle, you showed me a place so different and beautiful, I can never get it out of my mind. And I can't get you out of there either. You're stuck in my brain like my own blood vessels." "You said you knew the perfect place to run to. A place that was empty of people, and buildings, and far, far away. A place covered in blood-red earth and sleeping life. A place longing to come alive again. It's a place for disappearing, you'd said, a place for getting lost... and for getting found. I'll take you there, you'd said. And I could say that I agreed." "When the darkness gets easier, you know you're sinking deeper, becoming dead yourself." "You told me once of the plants that lie dormant through the drought, that wait, half-dead, deep in the earth. The plants that wait for the rain. You said they'd wait for years, if they had to; that they'd almost kill themselves before they grew again. But as soon as those first drops of water fall, those plants begin to stretch and spread their roots. They travel up through the soil and sand to reach the surface. There's a chance for them again." The second most affecting aspect (for me) is the portrayal of Stockholm's syndrome. This book will probably make you feel uncomfortable at some point. As the summary states, Ty is not the stereotypical bad villain. How much of that is because of Gemma's changing perspective? What happens when he shows you kindness? It's more than that, though. In learning about Gemma's story, you learn about Ty's, and it's as Gemma says, "it's hard to hate someone once you understand them." This story shows Ty's transformation too: from drugging captor to reformed, oblivious hypocrite to pitiful, desperate man, and how that connects back to Gemma's experience of Stockholm's syndrome. Yet another wonderfully done aspect is the portrayal of the Australian Outback. For all y'all who want a different setting for your YA novels, you'll find one unique and very evocative setting in Stolen. It's all in the various details: the silent land, the suffocating heat, the different flora and animals that surround their outbuildings and beyond, the things that are necessary to survive in the Outback like water filtration systems, the things you can make from the surrounding nature like paint... There are a lot of fun aspects to these details too like driving a stick through sand dunes. This book is an experience. If you're looking for your next unique YA read, you'll find it here. Brimming with evocative, survivalist details on the Australian Outback and showing a terrifyingly realistic portrayal of a girl taken from everything and everyone she knows, Stolen is an experience not to be missed. If you haven't read this book yet, I would suggest reading an excerpt online. Besides the "purple" prose complaint, I've also seen people cite the letter format and Gemma's POV as reasons for why they did not like the book. An excerpt will allow you to determine whether you'll share those complaints and whether you'll like the novel. Also, if you're super sensitive to anything happening to animals in books, you might have issues with this novel.

As originally posted on my blog Ticket to Anywhere I bought this book after listening to a fragment on [...] the short snippet that Pam read had me intrigued and so I immediately rushed out and picked up a copy for myself. I started to read it the day after it arrived on a trip my friend and I took to the beach - which just added to the ambiance of the read. Unfortunately I had to put it down soon after to read some review books but thoughts of this story stayed with me. When I was finally able to pick it up again I was kept up late reading. I was so engrossed....no that's not the right word....I was addicted to the story. Stolen by Lucy Christopher is like no other book that I've read its a book that trumps everything that I've read so far this year. And as I've read some pretty amazing reads that is saying a lot. This book is unique in so many ways. First there are no real chapters to speak of....just short breaks here and there in the narrative. The narrative itself is also fairly unique in that it is a letter....a very long letter written by Gemma - who is the victim of Ty. Ty....words are so hard to describe him. He is the abductor, the villian, the tortured soul who thinks he is saving Gemma from the evils of the world. He is a person that you think you should hate and despise but find that you can't. Ty defies all that it means to be a villian because while he has done something bad he isn't a bad person. Then there is the setting - the outback of Australia - which because more then just a setting and turns into a character all on its own. This is a novel that I had no expectations of before walking into it and now that I have finished it I don't have the words to say just how truly amazing it was. Gemma's voice is unique and real and touches the very soul inside you. As a reader you turn the pages wondering just where it will all end and what choice Gemma will make. You are torn between wanting her to escape and return to the life she lead before and wanting her to stay and make a life with Ty. These conflicting emotions become a struggle - both with the reader and with Gemma - and there are no easy answers. There is only this book that is filled with such prose and detail that you can almost touch the desert sands. (Of course it probably doesn't hurt that I read the bulk of this sitting on my balcony on a very hot summer day.) This is a book that I will become a champion for and Lucy Christopher is an author that I will be eagerly waiting to see what she comes up with next. Although I think that Stolen will be incredibly hard to surpass. And seriously folks, if you only pick up one book this year, then it should be this one. Its just that good. As originally posted on my blog Ticket to Anywhere

Ich habe das Buch eher aus Neugierde und Lust auf einen etwas anderen Stil gekauft. Das Ergebnis war überwältigend! 'Stolen' gehört nun eindeutig zu den Top5 meiner Lieblingsbücher (Die Tribute von Panem- Suzanne Collins, Gone- Michael Grant, Shiver-Maggie Stiefvater,..). Die Geschichte ist fesselnd, einmalig und faszinierend! Ich habe es in etwa sieben Stunden durchgelesen, ohne es einmal aus der Hand zu legen, und bin nun zutiefst berührt. Solche Emotionen, die Gedanken, Gefühle und das Leid& die Freude, die Gemma empfindet.. so etwas ähnliches ist mir Lese-verrückten noch nie unter die Augen gekommen. Das Buch ist zwar eher dünn und manchmal wünscht man sich, das Ende wäre etwas anders ausgegangen, aber alles in einem würde ich 'Stolen' jedem einzelnen Menschen herzlichst weiterempfehlen! Als ich die letzte Seite gelesen habe, schossen mir sofort Tränen in die Augen, obwohl ich bei Büchern sonst nie weine! Ein einfach einmaliges Buch!

I loved this book so much! It's now one of my all time favorites. I especially love the writing format of this book, how it's written as a letter to her captor, I think that just made the story so much more unique and different from anything else I've ever read before! This book definitely played with my feelings and made me feel conflicted, I still don't even really know how I feel about Ty after the end. I like that this book wasn't too graphic at all, it's great for young adults. Highly recommended!

Muy buen libro, el tema es algo fuerte pero es la realidad, hay muchas personas a las que les pasa

Stolen, de Lucy Christopher, é um livro que explora bem o tema da Síndrome de Estocolmo. Tem uma abordagem leve e a leitura é bem fluida. Gostei.

J'ai utilisé le tarot. Très facile pour mémoriser les cartes. Le livre est parfait. Je suis très contente de mon achat. Agréable à travailler. Super. Commander la veille et remise de mon achat le lendemain même les délais sont respectés.