Tuesday, September 20, 2011

New Post Coming Soon! (The Forgotten Locket by Lisa Mangum)

Sorry, I don't have time at the moment to post about the best book I just read, or the awesome experience I had of meeting the author! This will all come in a post soon, sorry to make you wait so long, but I don't have enough time right now. Homework, school, the whole enchilada.

--Sadie

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Stolen by Lucy Christopher


Earlier this summer, I read the book Stolen by Lucy Christopher. I need to return it to my English teacher, so I re-read it yesterday, and was reminded just why I loved this book. I really loved the whole idea behind this book; it was original and I've never read anything like it before. The story line was what intrigued me into picking up this book, though.


"Told in a letter to her captor by 16-year-old Gemma, Stolen explores the influence that a really wild and remote space can have on the inner development of a young woman.
Gemma, a British city-living teenager, is kidnapped while on holiday with her parents. Her kidnapper, Ty, takes her to the wild land of outback Australia. To Gemma’s city-eyes, the landscape is harsh and unforgiving and there are no other signs of human life for hundreds of kilometres in every direction. Here, there is no escape. Gemma must learn to deal with her predicament, or die trying to fight it.
Ty, a young man, has other ideas for her. His childhood experience of living in outback Australia has forever changed the way he sees things. But he too has been living in the city; Gemma’s city. Unlike Gemma, however, he has had enough. In outback Australia he sees an opportunity for a new kind of life; a life more connected to the earth. He has been watching and learning about Gemma for many years; when he kidnaps her, his plan finally begins to take shape.
But Ty is not a stereotypical kidnapper and, over time, Gemma comes to see Ty in a new light, a light in which he is something more sensitive. The mysteries of Ty, and the mystery of her new life, start to take hold. She begins to feel something for her kidnapper when he wakes screaming in the night. Over the time spent with her captor, Gemma’s appreciation of him develops …but is this real love, or Stockholm Syndrome?"


This book has caused me to dream about Australia all summer. It's a situation so bizarre, so unheard of, and yet you don't want Gemma to leave, you don't want Ty to go jail. It really makes you think about the mysteries of life; what you treasure and cherish, what you wish to forget, what you wish to escape from. Lucy takes these ideas and weaves it into such a brilliant story. Ty kidnapped Gemma, and yet you like the guy. Why? 

There's very sparse swearing throughout the book, but if swearing offends you, I wouldn't read it. Nothing inappropriate; definitely a young adult novel. A very good read, probably more for entertainment's sake than literature. Although that may be debatable. I loved it, so let me know what you think. 

--Sadie
Rating: 4/5 stars