Book Review: Stolen by Lucy Christopher

IT HAPPENED LIKE THIS.

I was stolen from an airport. Kidnapped. Taken from everything I knew, everything I was used to. Imprisoned by sand and heat, dirt and danger. And he expected me to love him.

This is my story. A letter to my captor.

Book Review

Gemma and her family went vacation to Bangkok when she first met her captor/kidnaper Ty at the coffee shop in Bangkok Airport while waiting for her flight to go back to London. She's sixteen years old girl who's really kind hearted and friendly and that's the reason why she accepted Coffee from Ty thinking that he was just being friendly. They talked for a while (Gemma being friendly) and suddenly she was in another continent. This is a story about how Gemma coped in that situation. At first she was terrified of that event and was really scared that Ty gonna kill her and all those nightmares. However, she then adapted to her current situation and finally accepted (I guess) that she won't be back home anymore. 

First what I like about this book is Gemma's character. The author definitely portray how Gemma felt through all things that happened to her in a realistic way. She was scared at first and by the end of the book, she develop a comfortable feeling towards Ty. This is really possible because she doesn't have any choice but to be dependent on her captor although she hated him at first. But in real life situation, you'll eventually will be attach to Ty when all you can see is how good Ty treat you and somehow you'll forget that Ty is the reason you there (and all the bad things he done). They called it Stockholm syndrome: a psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy and sympathy and have positive feelings toward their captors, sometimes to the point of defending and identifying with the captors. 

I hate Ty character. I just hate him. The moment I start reading this book, all I want to do is burn this book or punching someone face. Because, I hate him. I can't understand him at all. He just some psychotic man and I don't really care about him. I don't want to know anything about him..at all. There are some parts where he discussed the first time he met Gemma and how he was really attracted to her, hence planning on kidnapping her that make my blood boil. Like seriously man..you need help. He's like a villian character from the drama that you hate so much and convince yourself that the person is real and you don't want to watch anymore because you hate him. It's positive kinda hate when you can't distinguish between reality and fiction. 

I haven't really read lots of book that involve my emotion especially hateful emotion. Sometimes I do feel emotional while reading but always like happy, sad or terrified but never hate. I think this is the first book that I felt quite disturbed by the fact that I hate the character so much. Apart from that, this is a good book to understand the Stockholm syndrome. I just wish that Gemma will eventually find her own happiness and forget about all those traumatized event that happen to her.

Book Quotes

(may contain spoilers)

'Camels just make a lot of fuss.' You ran your hand up heck, and spoke gently to her again. Her ears flicked back to listen to you. 'As soon as she understand what we wants, she'll do it. Camels are like that.' I wondered if you thought the same thing about me.

What you did to me wasn't this brilliant thing, like you think it was. You took me away from everything-my parents, my friends, my life. You took me to the sand and the heat, the dirt and isolation. And you expected me to love you. And that's the hardest bit. Because I did or at least, I loved something out there. But I hated you too. I can't forget that.

But what else I can do, other than to plead with you like this? Other than to write down my story,our story, to show you what you've done..to make you realise that what you did wasn't fair, wasn't right.