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Monday 9 May 2011

Review

Stolen by Lucy Christopher    5+ Stars


*Spoilers*
Such a beautiful story, tragic and very complicated but wonderful. One of the best I have read!
Every time I thought about it, I would cry, it was something that I was still thinking about at 3am this morning when I couldn't sleep.

Lucy Christopher's style of writing it as a letter, had you in Gemma's shoes from the first sentence and it's tense all the way through. It's a little like a car accident, you can't seem to look away.

Gemma is kidnapped by Ty, a beautiful young Australian man with piercing blue eyes, blond hair, tanned skin and a strong muscular body, and he loves her and he has taken her away, in the hope she will love him back. Now if you don't think that isn't complicated, well we haven't even started.

Normally in these situation (victim/abuser/captive/kidnapper) you expect a certain amount of predictable behaviour. But, there wasn't anything predictable about Stolen. And you have to keep reminding yourself that Ty kidnapped Gemma, remember that.

Gemma is the abuser in this story, not Ty, she physically, verbally and mentally abuses Ty. He is the vulnerable person in the story and Gemma is strong, stronger than she probably thought she was. She finds out how to upset him and read his behaviour very quickly and uses it to her advantage. She's almost cruel to him. But you see, this is Lucy's brilliant way of making you sympathetic towards Ty.

Ty never hurts Gemma, he is never sadistic or cruel, he never touches her, never forces her to do anything she doesn't want to do. Infact, Ty cares for Gemma, worries she isn't eating or drinking enough and saves Gemma countless times and looks after her, nurses and is gentle and kind. Not the predictable and stereotypical behaviour of a kidnapper.

Gemma hates Ty, but there are tiny, tiny moments when her attraction to him pops up to the surface. Between her fantasising about killing him and escaping, she also sneaks peeks at his body and then feels sick to her stomach for actually looking. But, Ty is after all the most beautiful thing she has ever seen. Confusing!!???

Gemma never gives up, she is always trying to escape. She is certainly far more tenacious than I would have been in that situation, although she doesn't know what the Australian Outback is like.
Nothing as far as the eye can see!

It was unnerving to hear about all the time he had actually been in her life in England watching, the things he knew about her, whether she remembered them clearly, or the way he did, it was a way to leave some doubt in your mind about him. Then Lucy turns it back on you when Ty tells Gemma about how he saved her from her creepy friend in the park that was chasing her. Right there, you have just done a full 180 again, instead of creeped out, you're grateful!

I fell for Ty much earlier than Gemma ever did, and I don't know what that says about me, but given the filtered version of her life back at home, all the negative, there was nothing happy or positive about her family or her life back in England. Which is done on purpose, so it wasn't hard to fall.

The end was crazy, I still want to cry when I think about it. I suppose, like Gemma you don't know what the right thing to do is, and what the best thing is to do and what everyone expects you do. Sometimes they aren't the same thing. And as Gemma tries to explain, Ty isn't a monster! He does everything for her, anything he can. He gives up everything, knowing he will lose her forever and his life is over if he comes with her and he still stays with her and turns himself over to police. She wants him though, you see Gemma has fallen in love with Ty and even though she has her parents back all she wants is Ty, his arms around her, his smell.
Again might I remind you that he kidnapped her! Do you see how complicated and confusing this is! UGH!

The ending was brilliant, perfect, because you are left wanting Ty to get off, and really you don't know what will happen, it's easier that way. Gemma promises that she will tell her story, not what the lawyers want her to say and not a lie to make it look better for him. But about how he kidnapped her from everything in her life, stole her, and showed her something beautiful out there and that something magical happened between them. I am not ashamed to admit that I do wish that there was a sequel or an epilogue or something, I suppose I really couldn't stand the thought of Ty in prison, without her..

So I recommend this to anyone that wants a book that makes you think, really think about how you feel and how you would react if you were Gemma. It makes you think and second guess yourself.
Fantastic Book!! - Stolen by Lucy Christopher.

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