Stolen

by Lucy Christopher Narrated by Emily Gray

Overview

Winner of the Michael L. Printz Award
The captivating, disturbing, and heartbreakingly beautiful thriller from award-winning and critically acclaimed author Lucy Christopher.

A girl: Gemma, 16, at the airport, on her way to a family vacation.

A guy: Ty, rugged, tan, too old, oddly familiar, eyes blue as ice.

She steps away. For just a second. He pays for her drink. And drugs it. They talk.

Their hands touch. And before Gemma knows what's happening, Ty takes her.

Steals her away. To sand and heat. To emptiness and isolation. To nowhere. And expects her to love him.

Written as a letter from a victim to her captor, Stolen is Gemma's desperate story of survival; of how she has to come to terms with her living nightmare-or die trying to fight it.

“An emotionally raw thriller ... a haunting account of captivity and the power of relationships.”-Publishers Weekly, starred review

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

A Michael L. Printz Honor Book

ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults

A 2011 USBBY Outstanding International Book

“Complicated and beautiful — this novel left me doubting my emotions and missing a place I'd never been.” — Maggie Stiefvater

“All the tension of lightning, all the terror of thunder. A stunning, scary, and beautiful book.”— John Marsden

* “An emotionally raw thriller…a haunting account of captivity and the power of relationships.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Disturbing, heartbreaking, and beautiful all at once.” — School Library Journal

“A complex psychological study that is also a tribute to the hypnotic beauty of the Outback.” — Booklist

“Taut suspense and a riveting plot in a haunting setting.” — Kirkus

“Has a veracity and immediacy that rivets the reader to the page. Fascinating, disturbing...” — Voice of Youth Advocates

"Complicated and beautiful — this novel left me doubting my emotions and missing a place I'd never been." — Maggie Stiefvater

"All the tension of lightning, all the terror of thunder. A stunning, scary, and beautiful book." — John Marsden

"A vivid new voice for teens." — Melvin Burgess

TheDailyBeast.com, “10 Hot Young Adult titles” roundup, September 16, 2010

BCCB, review, June 2010

“[A]n interesting book for examining what obsessive Twilight-style approaches to love can mean in a real-life context…Readers who can't get enough of Cormier's classic After the First Death will find this induces both shivers and thought.”

Booklist, review, March 15, 2010

“Christopher's first novel is a complex psychological study that is also a tribute to

the hypnotic beauty of the outback.”

Kirkus, review, April 15, 2010

“From its compelling opening, the novel delivers taut suspense and a riveting plot in a haunting setting.”

Publishers Weekly, starred review, April 12, 2010

“Christopher's debut is an emotionally raw thriller…fast-paced novel…It's a haunting account of captivity and the power of relationships.”

School Library Journal, review, June 2010

“Disturbing, heartbreaking, and beautiful all at once, this book is the antithesis of the situational horror in Elizabeth Scott's Living Dead Girl.”

VOYA, review, June 2010

“Stolen has a veracity and immediacy that rivets the reader to the page. Vivid descriptions of the Sandy Desert combine with Gemma's emotional turmoil to evoke a sense of danger. This fascinating, disturbing novel should appeal to teens fourteen and older.”

Kirkus 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)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170646265
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	07/30/2010
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

It felt like we were flying. Fresh air hit me, smelling like flowers and cigarettes and beer. There were other people, somewhere, talking softly, shrieking like monkeys when they laughed. You pulled me through some shrubs, then around the corner of a building. A twig caught in my hair. We were near the rubbish bins. I could smell rotting fruit. You pulled me to you again, tilting my face and saying something. Everything about you was fuzzy, floating on the fumes of the bins. Your beautiful mouth was moving like a caterpillar. I reached out and tried to catch it. You took my fingers in yours. The warmth of you shot from my fingertips right up my arm. You said something else. I nodded. Some part of me understood. I started getting undressed.

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