Guest Review: Lucy Christopher’s Stolen

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Special $11.99 (Regular price: $17.99)
Publisher: Chicken House Scholastic
Format: Hardcover
Reviewer: Adi Alsaid on October 18, 2010
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

I’d like to preface this review by saying that I don’t often read YA. The genre’s popularity piqued my interest, especially after encouragement and a few recommendations from Melissa here at YABookShelf.com. She suggested Stolen as a good contemporary YA novel that would help me break into the genre.

On top of being new to YA, I’m also not typically a book reviewer, so this will be a bit unorthodox, perhaps. I’m not so big on plot summaries, since I think a book should be walked into without a map. What you’ll get are my general impressions as a reader. You can compare my review to Melissa’s thoughts on this book, which I have not read as of writing this to try and keep my review unbiased.

I’ll start this off with the ever-popular, somewhat arbitrary but definitely pragmatic star rating. I give Stolen 3 out of 5 stars. I think I tend to be generous with these ratings, especially since Goodreads and Netflix label 3 out of 5 stars as ‘I liked it.’ Yes, I liked this book. I liked sitting down to read it to find out what would happen next to the protagonist Gemma. I was drawn in by the characters and the plot and sometimes even by the writing itself.

Most of my favorite books are based on the strength of the writing, not necessarily of the story. I keep a file of quotations and passages that I would love to never forget, and if a book has several entries in that file, it’s more than likely a book I’m going to read again and recommend to everyone I know. Stolen‘s strength isn’t necessarily the language. Although there was a fair amount of lovely sentences, there was nothing that sent me scrambling for a pen and paper to copy down and share with the world.

If you haven’t clicked through to Melissa’s review yet and don’t know the main premise, Gemma’s been kidnapped and taken to the middle of the Australian Outback by a guy with blue eyes. We gradually learn more details about the kidnapper’s background and relationship with his kidnappee. Often, I found myself questioning Gemma’s line of thinking. Then I realized that she’s a teenage girl who would most likely think thoughts like the ones that Lucy Christopher has written for her. So, the character isn’t flawed or unrealistic, just…more teenagey than I can relate to at the moment.

I would have liked to get more about Gemma’s pre-kidnapping life. There are a few mentions of old friends and that back story is occasionally explored, but not to the extent which allows me to fully understand who Gemma was prior to the kidnapping and how it explains who she is during the kidnapping. The plot itself unfolds nicely, with plenty of developments to keep the reader interested.

In books and movies, I try not to guess how things are going to turn out. I don’t know if this is a no-no (passive reading, perhaps?), or what it says about the way I look at life, but it’s just what happens. So when a book or a movie is predictable enough to where I can’t help but know where it’s going to end up, it’s usually going to decrease my enjoyment. The thing with Stolen is that the author, whether intentionally or not, put an expectation in my head. Most of the way towards the end, I assumed I instinctively knew what was going to happen. Fortunately, the end managed to surprise me.

“Wow them in the end, and you’ve got a hit,” a movie once told me. Stolen didn’t completely wow me in the end, but it did a good job of leaving me satisfied, even if my quotation file didn’t grow.

This was a pleasant introduction to the YA world and I look forward to reading more titles in the future.

If you enjoyed, Adi’s review, why not check out his blog to learn more about him and his recent novel or follow him on Twitter?

Buy Stolen today!