Lydia

About the book: The book is called Stolen by Lucy Christopher and was published in 2010. It is first set in Bangkok airport in England, but throughout a majority of the book it is set in the Australian Outback. It is the story of a 16 year old girl, Gemma who gets kidnapped by a man who expects her to love him. While Gemma tries to escape multiple times, it seems as if her kidnapper finally convinces her to stay, until a turn in the story occurs.

About the author: Christopher Lucy started off living in Wales, in the UK, but eventually moved to Melbourne, Australia, where she went to school and University and lived most of her life so far. She moved back to Wales when she was 22 in order to study an MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. Her first published book, Stolen, was also influenced by her life and the things she did. She published another book called Flyaway (2009). She is also working on another that was due for publication in 2011. Critics say that her style of writing is structured wonderfully and the tone is balanced.

Characters and Conflict: The characters consist of Gemma and her kidnapper, Ty. Gemma is from London and Ty grew up in Australia, but moved to London, which is where he first spotted Gemma. As Gemma and her parents are at the Bangkok airport going to Vietnam, that is when Ty offers to buy her a cup of coffee and he slips drugs into it to make her unconscious. He then takes her into the Australian desert and intends to keep her forever.

Theme: Through the characterization of Gemma, Christopher portrays that love can twist one's feelings to the point where they do not feel like who they originally were.

Reviews:

This debut novel about an English teen's abduction and imprisonment in the Australian outback unfolds as a letter from captive to captor. From its compelling opening, the novel delivers taut suspense and a riveting plot in a haunting setting. Privileged Gemma, 16, is sympathetic and believable. Her captor, Ty, in his late 20s, is a less-successful creation. Abandoned child turned wasted drifter and stalker, Ty is now an expert survivalist, bent on teaching his abductee admiration and respect for the harsh world in which he's imprisoned her. When Gemma's escape attempts end in near death, Ty rescues her, returning her to captivity, using such handy teachable moments to instruct her on outback ecology. While the landscape is beautifully portrayed and deftly mined for subtext and symbolism, the novel can't overcome its central contradiction. Ty--respectful of the struggling desert ecosystem from humblest succulent to deadliest snake, perceiving each element as part of a fragile, interconnected web--has kidnapped Gemma, in violation of her human rights and needs, and imprisoned her thousands of miles from home. (Fiction. 14 & up)--Author Not Available

Drugged and kidnapped from her parents at the Bangkok airport, English teen Gemma wakes to find herself in the weirdly beautiful but desolate Australian outback. Her only company is her captor, a handsome young Australian named Ty, who is obsessed with her. Indeed, he tells her that he has been watching her since she was a child and now plans to keep her with him forever. Told in the form of a letter Gemma is writing to Ty, Christopher's first novel is a complex psychological study that is also a tribute to the hypnotic beauty of the outback, which Ty passionately loves and feels has been "stolen" by those who would exploit it for gain. Though Gemma at first hates her kidnapper and the landscape, she gradually begins to warm toward both. Some readers may feel the novel is weighted down by too much symbolism (if the outback is Edenic, watch out for a serpent!) and find Ty to be too sympathetic a character, but at the same time these potential drawbacks offer ample opportunity for thought and discussion. -Michael Cart

Stolen is an astounding novel. Chilling, tense and expertly balanced in tone and structure, I had to start reading it again as soon as I finished. Sixteen year old Gemma is stolen from an airport when she drinks a spiked coffee. Her consequent experiences in the desert are both sinister and surprising. The themes of stolen and saved, lost and found, the land, beauty and twisted love are etched into the layers of storytelling and character with skilful artistry. This is a book that makes you desperate to rush to the end to see what happens to Gemma but you won't because you suspect that this reading experience will take you on a journey that is too unusual to spoil. Gemma's terror, uncertainty and conflicted reactions seep into the reader, but our worst fears do not eventuate. Stolen is powerful writing, both thrilling and fascinatingly repulsive, for mature secondary girls.- Joy Lawn

Style Analysis: Lucy Christopher uses second person point of view to show the feelings of Gemma and how she saw her kidnapper's feelings. Since the book is a letter to the kidnapper, Ty, Christopher says both "I" and "you." Throughout the book the reader understands all of Gemma's feelings but it is a mystery as to what a lot of Ty's feelings are. Gemma does describe some of Ty's reactions and the reader can figure out his tone through the dialogue, but some of situation's leave the reader guessing. The author made the descriptions of the landscape "beautifully portrayed and deftly mined for subtext and symbolism" ("Christopher"). This is helpful because Ty's goal is for Gemma to love the land for its beauty and content. As said by Gemma, "I got to the shadows eventually. Only they weren’t the mine site like I’d hoped, or even a range of fertile hills. They were long, tall rolls of sand. Sand dunes, sculpted by the wind and held together with patches of vegetation” (181). The descriptions of the land through Gemma's voice shows how she is starting to warm up to her new home. The author also uses some inappropriate language which shows how she does not hold back when she is writing. This also makes the characters more realistic because most teenagers and men in their 20's curse.