6 Books That Explore Stockholm Syndrome

Stolen, by Lucy Christopher
Written in the second person as a letter to her former captor, Stolen is a disturbing book despite being pitched towards young adults. Gemma is kidnapped from an airport, drugged by a handsome man named Ty, and wakes up tied to a bed in the middle of a desert wasteland. She has no idea where she is and no way of contacting the outside world, and Ty is clearly unbalanced. And yet, he’s also kind to her, in his way, honest and open and emotional. Christopher makes one brilliant decision: the setting of Gemma’s captivity means even if she overpowers Ty and flees, she will likely die before finding help, thus explaining why she must stay and shift from escape and resistance to learning how to live with her captor. By the end the reader won’t be certain if this is a thriller about a kidnapping or the most unusual love story ever written.

The Good Girl, by Mary Kubica
With one of the most twisty plots of recent memory (think Gone Girl on steroids), The Good Girl is a lot more than a story of a victim falling in love with her captor. Mia is snatched by a career criminal and held in a remote cabin where the elements are a serious threat, but over the course of time the kidnapping turns into a shared struggle for survival. When Mia finally returns home she’s amnesiac and calls herself by a different name. Told in alternating points of view and switching between flashbacks and the present-day, the truth of what’s going on doesn’t become completely clear until the last few pages of this gripping story.

Empire of the Sun, by J.G. Ballard
Ballard’s semi-autobiographical (the protagonist, Jamie Graham, has Ballard’s first and middle names) story of a young boy separated from his parents during the chaotic evacuation of Shanghai after Pearl Harbor is one of the greatest World War II stories of all time. Jamie survives in abandoned homes, eating scavenged food, but when his supplies run out, he surrenders to the occupying Japanese forces and is taken to a brutal, inhumane prisoner camp. There, he develops an admiration for his captors. What makes this aspect of the story fascinating is that the child’s youth makes it perfectly sensible: he needs someone to take care of him, to feed him and protect him, and naturally regards those that do it with affection. It’s only through our adult understanding of the truth of the situation—often represented in the story by his fellow prisoner Dr. Ransome—that we see the tragedy of Jamie’s survival.

Captive, by A.J. Grainger
Robyn, the daughter of the prime minister, is kidnapped by a terrorist group that threaten to kill her unless one of their compatriots is released from prison, and try to use her captivity as leverage to expose alleged corruption. Her three captors range from more or less kind and sensible (a young man called Talon) to extremely frightening and unpredictable, but what backs up her shift from terrified victim to enamored sympathizer is her disappointment and confusion when her father refuses to “negotiate with terrorists,” apparently leaving her to her fate. That sort of bitter pill might wreak havoc on anyone’s psyche, giving the story all the gravitas it needs.

The Getaway, by Jim Thompson
The late Jim Thompson’s bleak view of the universe extended to his fellow man, and this classic noir tale of criminals with and without honor (mostly without) is violent, surprising, and entertaining. Career criminal Doc McCoy organizes what he thinks is the perfect crime, but he’s betrayed and must go on the run, pursued by his partner Rudy. Rudy lacks Doc’s charm, and has no friends or allies—so he kidnaps a married couple, the Clintons, and forces them to assist him in his pursuit. While Harold Clinton is intimidated and frightened by Rudy’s monstrousness, his wife Fran is the opposite: enamored, excited, and, ultimately, turned on. In a story about betrayal’s ripple effects, Fran’s is one of the more surprising and devastating to witness.

Six Days of the Condor, by James Grady
This classic spy thriller tells the story of a low-level CIA analyst, code-named Condor, who unknowingly stumbles on a secret code used by a group of rogue agents. When he survives an attempt to kill his entire station to cover up the discovery, he has to live by his wits, not knowing who he can trust. Overhearing a woman named Wendy discussing spending a vacation holed up in her apartment, he kidnaps her and forces her to shelter him—and she very quickly falls for him, which is slightly more believable in the film version, in which the character is portrayed by Robert Redford.