Lul's Literature review

Lul Reviews

Wednesday July 27, 201

REVIEW: Stolen by Lucy Christopher

Published: The Chicken House
Formate: Hardcover
Date of publication: 2010

Annotation:

Seventeen year old Gemma is kidnapped for Bangkok airport and taken to the Australian outback.Melvin Burgess describes Christopher as ‘a vivid new voice for teens’ and I couldn’t agree more. Stolen is Lucy Christopher’s debut novel (written as part of her PhD) and it’s a brave, original novel that I thoroughly enjoyed reading.
Stolen is the story of seventeen year old Gemma as stated above, who is kidnapped from a Bangkok airport by a charming, handsome boy and taken to the most desolate part of the Australian Outback. Nobody knows she is there, nobody even knows where to look for her, she’s completely alone at the mercy of her kidnapper, the mysterious Ty.
As the novel progresses and we learn that, not only had Ty been planning the kidnap for years, Gemma had always been his victim and that, for me, is what makes Stolen so unsettling. There’s nothing remarkably about Gemma, she’s an ordinary looking girl who came from an ordinary family in England. Somehow that’s scarier than if she was a movie star or daughter of a millionaire.

Justification for nomination:

Stolen is not a book for the easily offended individuals.  The novel is tense from beginning to end but Christopher doesn’t gloss over the more unpleasant aspects of the story; instead she writes them so delicately that it’s impossible not to feel some kind of empathy towards Ty. Both characters are superb; Ty, in particularly, is brilliantly written. He’s a kidnapper, by all rights we should hate him but it’s so hard to as we learn more about him. And Gemma, she starts off as a stereotypical moody teenager but as the novel grows, so does she and by the closing chapter I had really bonded with her.
Setting is clearly one of Christopher’s strengths as a writer because Stolen is an incredibly visual book. As I was reading it I kept thinking over and over again how well it would all translate on the big screen. If a film adaptation is ever made out of it. someone would be first in line to see it.Stolen might be a controversial story but nothing feels forced and Christopher writes everything so subtly and beautifully that it’s a book that can be enjoyed by teenagers of all ages. I would highly recommend this book as brilliant summer reading book. If someone out there haven't read it yet, I would encourage they to do so.
Cheers
Lul