Stolen Review

Beautiful cover. Sometimes simplicity is the way to go. Nothing to do with the book, but beautiful.

Plot: a rather good one, actually. Gemma is kidnapped by a stranger in an airport and wakes up in the middle of the desert in Australia. The book follows her time with Ty (the abductor) in the desert, and eventually she finds herself falling for him. But wait- before you run away in fear, let it be known that the ending was actually quite satisfying.

Writing: It was a quick read. Nothing stood out, either amazing or awful. There is rather more cursing than I'd have liked, and a few words that really weren't necessary, but nothing that made me need to close that book (although, having read A Song of Ice and Fire, I guess I'm pretty much immune). There is one scene that I particularly like that implies that Gemma has regular body proportions, rather than the usual "I'm so skinny and attractive, why am I so ugly?" protagonists we get. Although she does lose weight over the course of her imprisonment, which is completely normal considering the lack of proper food and the stress. The book is written as a letter from Gemma to Ty; Gemma is in first person and Ty is in second.

Characters: Gemma wasn't all that fascinating, nor deep, although her attitude towards Ty was a beautiful example of capture bonding. Ty was... interesting. I didn't quite understand him in the deep way it seemed I was supposed to, and he kind of cracked me up with his deep connection to "the land" but he was also a tragic and deeply messed up person, and we do get a lot of insight into his personality. There aren't really any other characters worth mentioning aside from the camel (who was awesome; I want one).

Stockholm's: It seems I get to use this category more and more lately. Gemma was actually an excellent example of Stockholm's (from what I know of it, I am admittedly not an expert). And from the way the book was structured, the reader is taken through it to. Ty was disturbing and insane, but from our glimpses of his past and his lucid moments, I could see Gemma falling for him. I won't spoil the ending, but although it seems a lot of people disliked it, that was the point at which I realized it was a good book. The ending was satisfying in a way most endings aren't.
What interests me is the way this book succeded too well. All over the internet are people who are upset at Gemma's "harsh treatment" of Ty. People who say they can't bear to think of Ty as a kidnapper. To me, the point of the book was that Gemma was in this bad and psychologically messed up situation, and overcame it. Apparently this isn't the majority opinion, although I thought it was obvious.

Rating: 2.569 (It came close to three stars, but the truth is that the middle kind of dragged at times and I don't really understand Gemma's relationship with either Anna or Ben, which seemed weird considering how often they were mentioned).

Note: There might be irregular updates for a while. I'll try to at least keep up with the reviews. Thanks for understanding.