Stolen [Paperback]

Lucy Christopher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2012

Now in paperback, the acclaimed Printz Honor Book: Sensitive, sharp, captivating!

A girl: Gemma, 16, at the airport, on her way to a family vacation.

A guy: Ty, rugged, tan, too old, oddly familiar, eyes blue as ice.

She steps away. For just a second. He pays for her drink. And drugs it. They talk. Their hands touch. And before Gemma knows what's happening, Ty takes her. Steals her away. To sand and heat. To emptiness and isolation. To nowhere. And expects her to love him.

Written as a letter from a victim to her captor, STOLEN is Gemma's desperate story of survival; of how she has to come to terms with her living nightmare--or die trying to fight it.

A Michael L. Printz Honor Book * ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults * A 2011 USBBY Outstanding International Book

*"An emotionally raw thriller."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Disturbing, heartbreaking, and beautiful all at once." --School Library Journal

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up While 16-year-old Gemma is en route to Vietnam from England with her parents, she is drugged and kidnapped from the Bangkok airport. She regains full consciousness in a rustic house deep in the Australian Outback with a 25-year-old man who is going to keep her forever. Ty never sexually abuses her, but she is truly a captive. Little by little, Ty wears down her defenses as Gemma realizes that escape is impossible. Soon she discovers the stark power and vibrancy of the wilderness and becomes absorbed in it. She also learns that Ty has been stalking her for years, devising a crafty plan to steal her away to make her love him which she ultimately believes she does. Ty's capture, taming, and release of a female camel effectively parallels Gemma's ordeal. Her unique first-person narrative is written to Ty after her release. Both characters are as vivid as the desert setting in which they are immersed. Despite the fact that Ty is a kidnapper, the revelations about his difficult youth and his usually caring behavior allow readers, like Gemma, to eventually care about him. Disturbing, heartbreaking, and beautiful all at once, this book is the antithesis of the situational horror in Elizabeth Scott's Living Dead Girl (S & S, 2008). Diane P. Tuccillo, Poudre River Public Library District, Fort Collins, CO
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Drugged and kidnapped from her parents at the Bangkok airport, English teen Gemma wakes to find herself in the weirdly beautiful but desolate Australian outback. Her only company is her captor, a handsome young Australian named Ty, who is obsessed with her. Indeed, he tells her that he has been watching her since she was a child and now plans to keep her with him forever. Told in the form of a letter Gemma is writing to Ty, Christopher’s first novel is a complex psychological study that is also a tribute to the hypnotic beauty of the outback, which Ty passionately loves and feels has been “stolen” by those who would exploit it for gain. Though Gemma at first hates both her kidnapper and the landscape, she gradually begins to warm toward both. Some readers may feel the novel is weighted down by too much symbolism (if the outback is Edenic, watch out for a serpent!) and find Ty to be too sympathetic a character, but at the same time these potential drawbacks offer ample opportunity for thought and discussion. Grades 9-12. --Michael Cart --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Chicken House; Reprint edition (April 1, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 054517094X
• ISBN-13: 978-0545170949
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (191 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #30,340 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lucy Christopher, author of Stolen and Flyaway, was born in Wales but grew up in Australia, living in Melbourne from the age of nine until she completed her undergraduate degree at Melbourne University. After various attempts at being an actor, a coffee maker, a waitress and a nature guide, she moved back to the UK to earn a distinction in a Creative Writing MA from Bath Spa University. Lucy took on part-time work as a university lecturer at Bath Spa University, teaching on the undergraduate and the MA creative writing courses, and is currently undertaking a PhD to explore the ways that Australian literature represents wild places, particularly in its writing for young adults. Lucy's debut novel, Stolen, was written as part of this PhD.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Emotional and powerful December 16, 2012

By Miss Bonnie

Format:Paperback

"How long will you keep me?" I asked.
You shrugged. "Forever, of course."

I honestly never had any intention of picking this up as I try and stay away from those books with the tough subjects but they always seem to find their way into my reading pile anyways. Plus, it's an Aussie read. I have to give it a shot for that alone. :) And despite the tough subject and despite the fact that it was a hard, emotional read, this book was well worth the read.

I really enjoyed the writing style, the whole thing written in letter form from Gemma to the man who stole her away from her life, Ty. It's natural to dislike Ty and I totally did... at first. Forget sympathizing or caring about the hardships he went through; he kidnapped a 16 year-old girl, drugged her, and had planned it all out to the point that he had a new ID and passport ready to get her on a plane to Australia. This was not a spontaneous decision. No, this was a plan that had been in the making for many, many years. I found it amazing (and shocking) the amount of time and energy he spent into making this whole plan work. He built a house in the middle of the Australian desert and stocked it with enough supplies for them to survive together for a very long time. It was honestly quite scary if you really think about it.

But, as time progressed Gemma slowly began to warm up to him. She saw a different side of him that she couldn't help but like. And dammit, I began to like him too despite the other half of my brain trying to remain rational and recognize the situation for what it was. Kidnapping aside, (yes, I know, that's a pretty big thing to brush off) I think the sole reason I gained a soft spot for him was I truly believed he cared for Gemma. Even before he kidnapped her from the airport he was watching over her (yes, I know, that's stalking) and actually saved her from a pretty grave situation that she wasn't even fully aware of. As Gemma states, 'What you did to me wasn't this brilliant thing, like you think it was.' And it wasn't, despite his best intentions and even though he truly thought that he was saving her, it was still wrong. Despite loving the letter style of writing I think it would have been even more brilliant as a dual-narrative; I would have loved to get a glimpse of everything that was happening from Ty's point of view.

Definitely one of those books that sneak up on you emotionally. You have no idea how invested you are in what happens for these characters until it's all over and you realize how much you had been hoping for that happily-ever-after type ending. The ending, while I wouldn't call it perfect, was definitely fitting and managed to make the whole story even more plausible.

Emotional and powerful, Stolen is a thought-provoking story that will have you questioning right and wrong and the grey areas in between.

'And, let's 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.'

30 of 38 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars I wish I loved it! June 4, 2010

By Ryan Kelley VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

On a layover at the Bangkok Airport, sixteen year old Gemma encounters a man she is certain she has seen time and time again on her various travels across the globe. Gemma, in her daze over the stranger's dazzling blue eyes, is drugged and essentially "Stolen" by this seemingly charming man named Ty. Ty takes her to the Australian desert where Gemma wakes up and realizes what has happened. With no one around for miles, Gemma has to learn to deal with her captor and the harsh surroundings where they live. The book is written as a letter to Ty from Gemma.

I really wanted to love this book but I just couldn't. Gemma's point of view is a little too cold and distant. I didn't really feel any strong ties to her character. I wasn't that concerned with what happened to her as much as I was interested in what Ty planned to do with her. I don't really think it's a good thing when you are reading a novel and hoping something bad will happen to the main character...but, that is how it was for me with Stolen. At first, I was intrigued by Gemma and her way with words, but I soon found her a bit dry and boring. I was also confused over where the author was going with the Ty/Gemma relationship and I felt very, very uncomfortable with the stolkholm syndrome scenarios and general plotline. It creeped me out-but not in a good way that made me want to keep reading. It was actually, for the first time in a while for me, a struggle to finish.

I think Stolen is a nice wake up call to young girls who might be a little naive and unaware of the dangers of talking to strangers, but it didn't sit well with me. I really didn't enjoy it. I do give the author props though for trying the idea out and I think it will find an audience that DOES love it. However, that audience does not include myself.

37 of 50 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Jerk Forward, Coast, Shudder, Stall, Try Again July 21, 2010

By T. Adlam TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

For roughly six months I had been waiting to read this book. Having done so, this is a difficult review for me to write because unfortunately, in my mind, this book had an arresting dichotomy: the story and its telling. In a typical book, those two aspects would meld together to create a pleasant reading experience, but that wasn't the case with Stolen.

Take the story out of the context of its telling and it becomes something compelling, thought provoking, and moving. Sixteen year old Londoner Gemma Toombs, while on a layover in Bangkok with her parents, is drugged and kidnapped and brought to the Australian outback by a man named Tyler "Ty" MacFarlane, who'd been watching her and planning since she was ten. When Gemma realizes what has happened to her, her emotions run the gamut from fear to anger to disgust and even love when her captor sacrifices himself to save her life. The story by itself would have granted this book a glowing five stars.

However, there's the telling to take into consideration. The book is written from the least used second person literary perspective. (Example: "You saw me before I saw you.") When handled with dexterity, it's a technique that can establish an intimacy with the reader, thus drawing her into the story until she becomes a part of it herself, but in Stolen it had the opposite effect on me. It wasn't immediately clear which role I would be playing in the story's unfolding and by the time it was, I was annoyed. In addition, the prose choices were plodding, sometimes drifting into purple, which resulted in a slow moving narrative.

Toward the middle, when it came time to capture a camel, the pace picked up, but it came in fits and spurts. The best analogy I can think of would be riding in a luxury sedan with a manual transmission except the driver doesn't know how to drive stick--you jerk forward, coast a few feet, shudder a little bit, stall, and then you have to wait while the driver fumbles with the key to restart the engine and try again. More often than I care to recall I was bored to tears, so if I were to rate the story's telling by itself, it would merit only one star.

It would have been bearable had Gemma's letter to Ty been four pages; instead the reader must sit through nearly three hundred. But in deciding on which rating to give overall, I opted to take the two aspects of this novel and average them because the story itself did have something to offer the reader even if getting through it was tiresome.