Customer Reviews

Stolen

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The story opens with a witch huddled in her home with a baby as an angry mob of villagers break down her door and set fire to her house. Why? Because she is a witch who has stolen one too many of the villagers' children. As the opening chapter ends, the witch casts two spells of unknown effect. The next chapter opens with a young girl running frantically through the woods near the witch's home with no memory of who she is or how she got there. She is taken in by a kind family, but the mystery of her identity and the witch's two spells haunt this story as it twists and turns through the past and present, and truth, lies, and misunderstandings.

Don't be deceived by the shortness of this book. Vivian Vande Velde is a master at writing short books while weaving characters and plots with unexpected depth. Stolen is no exception, and it keeps the reader guessing until the very end while tugging at both heartstrings and concepts of morality. Recommended.

A girl runs through the forest. As she runs, she realizes she has no memories prior to running. She remembers running, although not why she is running or from whom or where she is trying to go. Nor does she know her name.

As she starts to question her identity, dogs come after her. She dashes up a tree and stays there until she's rescued by their owners, who take her in and care for her. Her lost memories become fuel for gossip as they attempt to help her uncover her identity.

One couple believes she could be their daughter, who was kidnapped by a witch six years ago. They come and take her away to a new life filled with expectations and danger.

Readers are left to fill in the blanks and figure out the clues to discover the girl's real identity. The cover produces a spooky atmosphere that will make readers curious. Vande Velde creates a new twist on a fairy tale complete with evil sisters and filled with suspense, danger, and a longing for home.

Reviewed by: Jennifer Rummel

"Stolen" is about a girl who wakes up running through the woods, being chased by dogs. She "wakes up" because she has no memory, none at all -- she remembers running through the woods, being chased by dogs. The dogs tree her, and even wound her, before she is rescued by their owner, who hears them barking wildly -- as excited as if they had tracked down quarry that had long eluded them. The man, a farmer named Browley, takes the girl home so his wife, Avis, can treat her wounds. There the girl meets their granddaughter, Ravyn, and her dog, Hercules Turnip -- and the only reason I included the family's names is so I could write that last one, it's so good. If I ever have a child, I will seriously consider Hercules Turnip Humphrey.

The family does not know the girl, but they take her in, hoping that her amnesia will be temporary and she will remember her name and where she came from, and why she was running through empty woods near a village where she does not live. Once word of the girl reaches town, there seems to be an answer: Mady and her husband Frayne had lost their daughter Isabelle six years before, when the witch who lived in the woods apparently stole her. Isabelle would be the same age as this girl is now, so Mady comes to see -- and is overjoyed to find that her daughter is returned at last!

Maybe. Despite Mady's assurances that this girl must be Isabelle, the woman's face and voice, the name Isabelle itself, and the reminiscences Mady showers on the girl, do not spark a single memory from her. But since Mady seems so sure, the girl goes home with her, hoping that seeing the farmhouse where she may have been raised will ring a bell.

That doesn't do it either. But the situation quickly raises suspicions once the girl meets Mady's oldest daughter, the spoiled and self-centered Honey, and Mady's aunt, the wealthy and cantankerous Isabelle -- for whom the girl, if she is indeed the stolen daughter, was named. But Mady coaches the girl before she meets the aunt, telling her fond memories of the missing Isabelle's childhood so the girl can react as if she remembers for herself. It becomes clear that Mady tried very hard to place her daughter to become Aunt Isabelle's heir, and despite differences in appearance and the continued lack of true memories, Mady is determined to put this girl right back in Isabelle's place.

And as it turns out, she succeeds, though not in a way she had ever imagined.

It's a nice little book, with an outstanding twist at the end. I expected a surprise, but never the actual solution to the mystery, which comes complete with several surprises. There is a tease in the first chapter of the book that led me down the wrong path, as the author intended, and that was very nicely resolved in the end. I didn't think there was enough comeuppance for the villains, but justice is served, nonetheless -- and how can you go wrong when there's a dog named Hercules Turnip? It was a fast but satisfying read.

Let me start off by saying that this book is never as spooky as the cover would suggest. There may be an old witch, and there is certainly rampant speculation about said witch and what she might do out there all alone in the forest, but this book isn't about her. It's about Isabelle. Also, there is someone a lot more scary than a witch, but that person is scary in a much different way than what the cover advertises. This person inspires a slow build of scary rather than a jump out and grab you scary. I say this because I certainly wouldn't have picked this book up when I was in late elementary/early middle school (I was kind of a wimp), but I probably would have really loved the story inside.

The girl who might be Isabelle gets thrown into a lot of drama, right from the get-go. She's bitten by a hunting dog that is looking for a witch. When she begins to recover from that, she has to tell the family that took her in that she remembers nothing about her own life. Just when she starts to come to terms with that, the folks who might be her family come to claim her. The newly stolen baby was their daughter as well. Their joy at having Isabelle back is tempered by worry about the baby. There is so much pain in this family; Isabelle wants to be their missing daughter, if only to allow them to avoid the pain of losing a daughter all over again. Then Isabelle meets Honey, possibly her older sister, and she can tell that whether Isabelle is the "real" Isabelle or not, Honey wants her family to have nothing to do with her.

Isabelle has some memory; she knows how to spin wool and she knows she was never a princess, for example. She can still navigate the world she's found herself in, even if she has no idea what her place is in it. Maybe because, at least in her head, she has no history with the people around her, she sees things about them that the rest of the village may not. She feels sorry for the mother and father (hers?) who have love two daughters to the witch, but she can see, where others do not, that this desperation to have Isabelle back isn't just the grasping hope of grieving parents. She can see that the rich aunt after whom Isabelle was named is lonely and desperate to have her namesake back. She sees that Honey isn't just suspicious of her, never believing her to be the true Isabelle, but that she doesn't believe that the "real" Isabelle is capable of coming back at all. And she sees that Avis, the woman who initially took her in, doesn't trust the lot of them. These insights don't always seem to help Isabelle figure things out as quickly as she should, but they are more interesting than simple, wide-eyed wonder at that is new around her.

There's a lot of intrigue in this little village that Isabelle must decipher if she's going to figure out who she really is. When it does finally come back to her, it all comes back in a rush (I mean for her. The writing isn't rushed). The ending is unbelievably clever. I had to rush back and reread the prologue to make sure it all fits together, because it is certainly not what I was expecting. It's awesome; I highly recommend it.


Book source: Philly Free Library

This book is about a girl who has lost her memory and the story of an old witch. The ending was completely unexpected in the good kind of way. The first signs of what is really happening only appear two pages before it is revealed. Wonderful book!

The same day villagers finally hunt down a witch in the woods, a pre-teen appears with no memory of her past. Is there a connection between the two? Isabelle's only memory is of a mysterious chant: could she have been stolen by the witch of the woods, or lost her memory? Satisfying supernatural mystery abounds in this riveting novel for middle to high school readers.

This is the first book of Velde's I have read and I found myself enjoying the story line. Isabelle is a young girl who has no memory of who she is. The story begins with Isabelle running in the forest with a pack of hunting dogs tight on her heels. Just when she thinks the dogs will be the death of her, she pulled into unconsciousness. Then she awakens she finds she has been taken in by a peasant family - Avis and Browley - and their young daughter, Ravyn.

Ravyn is a six year old who is determined Isabelle was a Princess stolen away by the legendary witch from the forest. Apparently this witch has been stealing away young children for many years - the children are never seen or heard from again. Ravyn enjoys weaving a new life for Isabelle out of her curious imagination.

Just when Isabelle is starting to feel comfortable with the peasant family, another family appears, claiming she is their daughter who was stolen away six years earlier. This poor family had recently has a second child stolen away, a newborn only one months old. The mother is determined that the young girl is her daughter, Isabelle, but the oldest daughter, Honey, is convinced this girl is not her long lost sister.

But all is not what it seems with Isabelle's "supposed" family and she begins to wonder if they are claiming her in order to gain an inheritance from a rich aunt, whom Isabelle is named after.

This book has a happy ending, but not the ending I was anticipating. Just when I thought I knew how the story would end, Velde gives the story an unusual twist.

This small book - 158 pages - was a different kind of young adult book and I read it in one sitting. Not your normal young adult fantasy book, this story is more along the lines of the wonderful fairy tales I read as a child. Stolen has increased my desire to read other books by Vivian Vande Velde.

I am a little older than the intended audience for `Stolen' but I love Vivian Vande Velde's work. `Stolen' is a good book with several nice twists. The one flaw was that I had a little trouble connecting to Isabelle. Her voice seemed a bit detached. Still, all in all a good read.

The first thing Isabelle remembers is running. She doesn't know why she's running or where she's going. She doesn't even know her own name. She is taken in by a kind peasant family until she is claimed by a couple whose daughter was stolen by a witch six years ago. They think that Isabelle is their long-lost daughter, released when the villagers burned down the witch's cottage after she had stolen one child too many. But Isabelle isn't so sure. Their oldest daughter, Honey, is openly hostile and claims that Isabelle can't be her sister. Her new "parents" seem to have ulterior motives for wanting her to be their lost daughter. And Isabelle still can't remember anything about her past.

I love Vivian Vande Velde. She has written some of my favorite young adult books (Dragon's Bait, A Well-Timed Enchantment (Magic Carpet Books), etc.). I snatch up every book she writes. So I was sad to find myself so disappointed by STOLEN. First off, there's absolutely no romance in this, so don't expect any. Also, I suspected Isabelle's true identity from almost the beginning but I had hoped desperately that I was wrong. I didn't want Isabelle to be who I thought she was. However, I'm not saying that STOLEN is a bad book. Far from it. Vivian Vande Velde always has a writing style that keeps me hooked and if I hadn't had such high expectations because it's by her I wouldn't have been so disappointed. It may not be VVV's best work, but it's still a quick, engrossing read. And even if I guessed who Isabelle was I couldn't put the book down until I KNEW for sure.

I have always been a huge VVV fan ever since I first read Companions of the Night. Since then the only book I hated was The Book of Mordred - because it was morbid and boring.

I waited for this novel in great anticipation as the story seemed interesting - A girl is found wandering in the forest and can't remember a thing about who she is or where she came from. Mix in an old witch that no one likes and this should have been a quick, enjoyable evening read...but it wasn't.

Maybe it is because I've read so many of VVV's books, but I had the identity of Isabelle worked out at the beginning of the second chapter - like other readers I hoped I would be wrong...but wasn't.

VVV's books are normally action-packed and well paced - this one is dull and boring - I didn't care a hoot about Isabelle and much less about her journey of self discovery. One thing that was missing from the story was a bit of romance - which VVV writes really well.

The only nice thing I can say is that it has a nice cover - the content just isn't there and I am so disappointed I wasted my money.