Stolen by Lucy Christopher

It happened like this. I was stolen from an airport. Taken from everything I knew, everything I was used to. Taken to sand and heat, dirt and danger. And he expected me to love him.

This is my story.

A letter from nowhere. 

Sixteen year old Gemma is kidnapped from Bangkok airport and taken to the Australian Outback. This wild and desolate landscape becomes almost a character in the book, so vividly is it described. Ty, her captor, is no stereotype. He is young, fit and completely gorgeous. This new life in the wilderness has been years in the planning. He loves only her, wants only her. Under the hot glare of the Australian sun, cut off from the world outside, can the force of his love make Gemma love him back? 

The story takes the form of a letter, written by Gemma to Ty, reflecting on those strange and disturbing months in the outback. Months when the lines between love and obsession, and love and dependency, blur until they don't exist - almost.

-- Goodreads.com description --

This book was amazing! I'm interested in reading books about this topic: kidnapping (and stalking). This is the first book I read about it though and I wasn't disappointed. First of all, I have to mention the beautiful cover, simple but gorgeous! Secondly, this book is written in second person, which is something I don't have a lot of experience with. However, in this book it worked! It was really cleverly done and I highly recommend it! The title Stolen is sometimes accompanied by the subtitle: a letter to my captor, which explains why it is written in second person. It isn't really obvious in the beginning that Gemma is writing this letter to her captor but the way it is revealed in the end really wraps it up beautifully. I hesitated to read this book at first because it is implied that Gemma might fall in love with her captor. I immediately suspected that this book would be about the romance of the stalking and the kidnapping but luckily I was entirely wrong about it. Gemma tries everything she can to escape, so this isn't a love story at all. However, near the end of the book, Gemma experiences Stockholm syndrome, the reader experiences that as well to an extend. That was also an interesting twist in the plot. 

Furthermore, this book felt incredibly real, the characters, the surroundings were all perfectly described. It was suspenseful and I was so curious to see how it would all turn out. It kept me on the edge of my seat. The mental aspect of the book is also not to be underestimated. I couldn't find one flaw in the story or in the writing.

The only negative thing I have to mention is that my copy of the book was difficult to read because it was like reading a book with water damage, the pages stuck together and were difficult to bend. It was quite a task to turn the pages, however there were no real physical indications as to why this was the case. Weird. And annoying!

Ultimately, this book was everything I hoped it would be! Stolen is unique and if you are interested in this topic don't hesitate to pick it up! And even if this topic doesn't interest you that much, you should still give it a try. The fact that this is technically a young adult book shouldn't stop you either. I highly recommend Stolen! And that is why I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars!