Stolen product reviews

This book kept me captivated from the first page til the last. This isn't a suitable book if you want a quick read, it took me four days to finish, on and off as i have a demanding toddler. However i'm not as quick at reading as some so it may take others only a few hours to read.

It is a great storyline - a teenage girl, Gemma, is 'stolen', in other words abducted, from a Bangkok airport while on holiday with her family, by a young man called Ty who, it transpires, has been stalking her for years. He imprisons her in a very remote region of the Australian desert. Gemma makes some efforts to run away until it becomes apparent that all attempts at escape are futile.

Gemma hasn't entirely given up hope on escaping, but she is also at this time beginning to see him in a new light which she has never seen in him - sensitive and yet vulnerable at the same time. Through these, she sees a little of him in herself; after all she is very much alone like him as she felt her parents are too busy with their lives to even care about her feelings.

By the end of the book, like Gemma, I started to feel sympathetic towards Ty for what he'd done. Yes it was wrong, and if he'd gone about it a completely different way he could've been with Gemma legally in Australia without anyone being drugged or "stolen".

Ty had told Gemma if she wasn't completely taken with him and the land in four months time he would take her to the nearest town and release her. This however came to an abrupt ending as Gemma was bitten by a venomous snake and ended up in a venom induced coma. He had a choice, to keep her with him and let her die, or take her to the hospital to save her. He chose the latter. By choosing that he knew his time was up and would be charged for his crimes.

Gemma went through so many emotions during this book. Fear anguish, hatred, pain, and eventually fell in love with him, or at least thought she did. I think most readers would argue that what her feelings for Ty might be a cause of Stockholm syndrome; I admit I had the same thinking while reading the story, but the more I read I felt there is also a real connection between Gemma and Ty after all,like it was a very genuine connection to them in the end.

This book has a brilliant ending, i wont give it away - but i can say it was an ending i didn't expect.

During this book there are light hearted moments, like when a camel vomits on Ty's head. Lucy Christopher has done an excellent job in writing this story. She is very descriptive which gives you a good image in your mind of the setting the book is taking place in.

I think with the right actors, this could be a movie that comes away with many oscars!!! The book is definately value for money.

Stolen had an interesting premise and I was interested to read a first person account of Stockholm Syndrome in action. The writing was clear and easy to follow, what I would expect from a book targeted towards young adults. Near the end of the story, I felt myself beginning to feel sorry for the kidnapper much as Gemma does. Yet when I got to the end of the story, I wasn't sure exactly what I thought. I suppose that is the whole point... the confusion of that situation. It isn't the sort of story that leaves you feeling satisfied, but it does raise interesting questions.

I liked the vivid description of Australia, the realism with which Christopher writes her world. If I was told at the end that this was a summary of a true story, I would believe it (it isn't, is it?). In some places, I grew a little annoyed at Gemma for doing such self-destructive things, but I suspect that I was more frustrated with the situation and trying to convince myself that I would have handled it better. Yet how can you really know something like that until you are in her position (and I hope I never am).

Romantic and heart wrenching, this book is an easy read and well worth the few hours it takes to get from beginning to end.