Hurray to book reviews! They are one of my favourite things to write if I am being honest.
As you may have figured by the title, this will be about the book "Stolen" by Lucy Christopher.
First off, let's have a glance at this beautiful book. (Red flag: cover judgement ahead).
Cleverly stacked above The Book Thief and Night Film, this book has a simple, sleek and chic cover. The black and white contrast was what got me sold. The font too implies something handwritten and personal – aka everything this book is simply about. The glossy orange butterfly too carries a lot of symbolism reflected from the novel. Overall I give this cover a good old 4/5 stars.
The content, however, gets a 4.5/5 for me but before I dwell on that, let me explain to you what this wonderful and deservedly hyped book is about.
Stolen, as the title suggests, is a letter written by 16-year-old girl Gemma to her captor, 25-year-old Ty. Ty has been watching, or stalking, Gemma since she was 10. He kidnaps her in Hong Kong's airport and takes her to the desert in Middle-Of-Nowhere, Australia. It reflects on her time in the desert and the disturbing but intriguing relationship that grew between her and Ty. (Note to Lucy Christopher: thank you, thank you, thank you for not including insta-love. Thank you.)
This book was very interesting to me as it deals with Stockholm Syndrome, a psychological phenomenon I am generally interested in. For those of you not familiar with the term, here is the definition straight from the book: "It is when a victim emotionally bonds with his or her abuser... It may be as a survival mechanism, so that you feel safer with your captor when you are getting along, for instance, or it may happen if you start to feel sorry for your abuser... perhaps he's been wronged at some point in his life and you want to make it up to him... you start to understand him; you have to get on, or you suffer tremendous boredom... or perhaps he makes you feel special, loved –".
Christopher perfectly described the syndrome and from just one paragraph I learned so much more about about it than I already know. It perfectly describes what Gemma went through too, which she later obviously denies as those who suffer from the syndrome refuse to admit to it.
Other topics and themes the book dealt ever so cleverly with were nature, art, child neglect, living in the media age, primitiveness, survival skills and probably a few more that are not currently on the top of my head.
The author's writing style was perfectly balanced between imagery, thought and direct speech (dialogue). Though, it seemed to me that it just got better as the novel progressed. So I do not blame you if you find the start sort of slow and boring (it really kicks off from around 50 pages from the 300-paged book). I also didn't feel like it dragged at any point from there which is an incredible bonus for a book.
Now onto my favourite part of book reviews: character talk!
First off, Gemma. Honestly, I do not have much to say. Christopher doesn't take any chance in the book to dwell on Gemma's interests other than she had fairy fantasies when she was 10 and her parents are somewhat modern business oriented parents. Under other circumstances, this would usually degrade a book a whole start, but since this is a letter from Gemma to someone who has stalked her for years and knows everything about her I would understand why. She also has zero survival skills and is so influenced by the media and she constantly thinks of movies and books, but this is also understandable as she has lived her whole life in the city. And finally, she is the victim of the psychological phenomenon of Stockholm Syndrome and Lucy Christopher so wonderfully and accurately portrays what it is like.
Now onto the interesting character: Ty. Ty, or Tyler, was abandoned as a child and you could see how his trauma really influenced him into being who he is today. He is a very primitive man influenced by the Aboriginal culture (if you are interested in what this is, give it a google or else this would lead to a whole other blogpost). Reading the book, critically, from Gemma's point of view might also imply that he is in a way borderline sociopathic or he is just extremely socially awkward to the point he would rather just spend his life with just one person. But honestly, and I am going to sound like I am the one with Stockholm Syndrome here, his experiences (which I don't want to spoil you on) are what lead him into being that way. He is also, almost literally, blinded by love. Perhaps this book is Lucy Christopher's interesting way of portraying the power of love.
To wrap this up here is a 3 word sum up for this book: disturbing, insightful and beautiful. I honestly think everyone should pick it up for a non-cheesy, thought-provoking, contemporary YA as it will broaden your horizons and allow you to really think critically of things and not just take them for the way they are. And though I may have said it is disturbing but this is what makes it so gripping. It'll leave you thinking for days and I'll bet you whatever that you will be thinking throughout what would you be doing if you were in Gemma's place.
Make sure to comment what you thought of it if you read it, or if you want to read it after this review or if you just have any general comment! See you next post,
- Farah
As you may have figured by the title, this will be about the book "Stolen" by Lucy Christopher.
First off, let's have a glance at this beautiful book. (Red flag: cover judgement ahead).
Cleverly stacked above The Book Thief and Night Film, this book has a simple, sleek and chic cover. The black and white contrast was what got me sold. The font too implies something handwritten and personal – aka everything this book is simply about. The glossy orange butterfly too carries a lot of symbolism reflected from the novel. Overall I give this cover a good old 4/5 stars.
The content, however, gets a 4.5/5 for me but before I dwell on that, let me explain to you what this wonderful and deservedly hyped book is about.
Stolen, as the title suggests, is a letter written by 16-year-old girl Gemma to her captor, 25-year-old Ty. Ty has been watching, or stalking, Gemma since she was 10. He kidnaps her in Hong Kong's airport and takes her to the desert in Middle-Of-Nowhere, Australia. It reflects on her time in the desert and the disturbing but intriguing relationship that grew between her and Ty. (Note to Lucy Christopher: thank you, thank you, thank you for not including insta-love. Thank you.)
This book was very interesting to me as it deals with Stockholm Syndrome, a psychological phenomenon I am generally interested in. For those of you not familiar with the term, here is the definition straight from the book: "It is when a victim emotionally bonds with his or her abuser... It may be as a survival mechanism, so that you feel safer with your captor when you are getting along, for instance, or it may happen if you start to feel sorry for your abuser... perhaps he's been wronged at some point in his life and you want to make it up to him... you start to understand him; you have to get on, or you suffer tremendous boredom... or perhaps he makes you feel special, loved –".
Christopher perfectly described the syndrome and from just one paragraph I learned so much more about about it than I already know. It perfectly describes what Gemma went through too, which she later obviously denies as those who suffer from the syndrome refuse to admit to it.
Other topics and themes the book dealt ever so cleverly with were nature, art, child neglect, living in the media age, primitiveness, survival skills and probably a few more that are not currently on the top of my head.
The author's writing style was perfectly balanced between imagery, thought and direct speech (dialogue). Though, it seemed to me that it just got better as the novel progressed. So I do not blame you if you find the start sort of slow and boring (it really kicks off from around 50 pages from the 300-paged book). I also didn't feel like it dragged at any point from there which is an incredible bonus for a book.
Now onto my favourite part of book reviews: character talk!
First off, Gemma. Honestly, I do not have much to say. Christopher doesn't take any chance in the book to dwell on Gemma's interests other than she had fairy fantasies when she was 10 and her parents are somewhat modern business oriented parents. Under other circumstances, this would usually degrade a book a whole start, but since this is a letter from Gemma to someone who has stalked her for years and knows everything about her I would understand why. She also has zero survival skills and is so influenced by the media and she constantly thinks of movies and books, but this is also understandable as she has lived her whole life in the city. And finally, she is the victim of the psychological phenomenon of Stockholm Syndrome and Lucy Christopher so wonderfully and accurately portrays what it is like.
Now onto the interesting character: Ty. Ty, or Tyler, was abandoned as a child and you could see how his trauma really influenced him into being who he is today. He is a very primitive man influenced by the Aboriginal culture (if you are interested in what this is, give it a google or else this would lead to a whole other blogpost). Reading the book, critically, from Gemma's point of view might also imply that he is in a way borderline sociopathic or he is just extremely socially awkward to the point he would rather just spend his life with just one person. But honestly, and I am going to sound like I am the one with Stockholm Syndrome here, his experiences (which I don't want to spoil you on) are what lead him into being that way. He is also, almost literally, blinded by love. Perhaps this book is Lucy Christopher's interesting way of portraying the power of love.
To wrap this up here is a 3 word sum up for this book: disturbing, insightful and beautiful. I honestly think everyone should pick it up for a non-cheesy, thought-provoking, contemporary YA as it will broaden your horizons and allow you to really think critically of things and not just take them for the way they are. And though I may have said it is disturbing but this is what makes it so gripping. It'll leave you thinking for days and I'll bet you whatever that you will be thinking throughout what would you be doing if you were in Gemma's place.
Make sure to comment what you thought of it if you read it, or if you want to read it after this review or if you just have any general comment! See you next post,
- Farah
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