Sophia’s Letter-Essay #7 – Stolen: A Letter to My Captor

I recently read Stolen: A Letter to My Captor, a 300 paged young adult thriller by camel-loving, South Africa-traveler, Lucy Christopher.

 

Stolen: A Letter to My Captor was published on May 4, 2009 and has since then has been awarded with the title of Printz Honor Book along with being translated into French, Dutch, Greek, Danish, and German.

 

I happened upon this gem of a novel while wandering around Barnes & Noble one rainy afternoon and was originally drawn to the book by the simplicity of the cover: a black background with white lettering and a single bronze butterfly silhouette. After reaching for it and reading the blurb on the back paired with the glowing reviews, I knew I had to read it.

 

Gemma, a british city-living teen suddenly finds herself in the hands of a kidnapper after being drugged and stolen from the airport. Ky, her captor brings her to the wild australian outback and attempts to show her what he sees in the landscape. Unlike Gemma who views the rugged, desolate terrain as a prison, Ky sees an escape. He sees an opportunity for a new life; one more connected with the earth and the beauty it hold. Through the time spent with her kidnapper, Gemma begins to see Ky in a new, more positive light and she begins to develop feelings of sympathy and compassion for him. But is this affection real? Or is it Stockholm Syndrome?

 

I really admire Christopher’s gift of hooking the reader and her beautifully unique writing. From the second I opened Stolen, I was infatuated with the story and the characters. After the initially intrigue, Cristopher made sure this book was an exceptionally interesting read due to the fact that the whole book is a letter written from Gemma to Ty presumably after she escapes his clutches.

 

The point of view Stolen was written from was Gemma’s and like I previously stated, the whole novel is a letter to her captor. I think this decision that Christopher made was an amazingly idiosyncratic one and I highly respect her for this. This was such a brilliant way to tackle the subject of Stockholm Syndrome due to the fact that you get to view Ky from Gemma’s point of view and get to experience through her eyes exactly what she began to see in her kidnapper. This is also an interesting perspective because you don’t necessarily feel like you become a part of the main character but rather that you are a bystander which isn’t something many books do.

 

The tone of this story is quite difficult to decide upon due to the fact that this book has a lot of very different, conflicting tones. The tone of Stolen is angry, regretful, longful, and affectionate all at the same time and I think that the differing tones are perfect to reflect the pandemonium of emotions Gemma felt at her situation.

 

One of my favorite passages from Stolen is actually the very first one. The book starts like this:

 

“You saw me before I saw you. In the airport, that day in August, you had that look in your eyes, as though you wanted something from me, as though you’d wanted it for a long time. No one had ever looked at me like that before, with that kind of intensity. It unsettled me, surprised me, I guess. Those blue, blue eyes, icy blue, looking back at me as if I could warm them up. They’re pretty powerful, you know, those eyes, pretty beautiful, too (page 1).”

 

This one paragraph completely captured my attention and held it. With this one paragraph, I had so many questions and I later discovered, so many answers. I think that’s the reason I love this passage so much: it gives you the beginning and the end without you even noticing and Christopher’s cryptic, foreshadow heavy writing made Stolen such a refreshing read.
Overall I give  Stolen: A Letter to My Captor an 8 out of 10 for beautiful writing and a breathtaking view of Stockholm Syndrome and the thin line between love and hate, affection and manipulation.

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6 thoughts on “Sophia’s Letter-Essay #7 – Stolen: A Letter to My Captor

  1. Sophia,
    You wrote a great, detailed letter essay and it seemed like you put a lot of thought into it. You made the book sound interesting in your summary and from he passage that you quoted. For the reflection section, you had a lot of descriptive information like when you elaborated on the tone of the book and expressed your thoughts about the point of view and the style of writing.

  2. Dear Sophia,

    I really enjoyed reading your letter essay. I had really wanted to read this book and after seeing how much you enjoyed the book, I still really want to read it. You describe this book really well, adding in a lot of detail to hook readers. It was well written.

    -Kristine Jones

  3. Dear Sophia,
    I remember this book from sixth grade when you first read it! i have wanted to read it for a very long time and i actually saw it the other day and it reminded me of you. i loved your letter essay (i always enjoy them). I love how you described the book and your passage really gave me an idea of the immense emotion present in this book. You really wrote a great letter essay, i really like how you included a picture of the cover.

    Good Job! I really enjoyed reading this.
    —Melissa Colasante

  4. Sophia,
    It seems like you really enjoyed this book, or at least writing about it! Your letter essay made me want to read this book because it seems like you like it a lot.
    Hanna

  5. Sophia,
    Great letter essay! You have such a way with words and I love your writing style. This book sounds very interesting. While (in my opinion at least) the “character falling for their captor” seems to be an increasingly popular theme nowadays, I like the new twist of having the story being written as a letter back to the captor once the character was free.

    -Gabi

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