100 Books in 2012: Book 15 "Stolen"

Lucy Christopher's novel is another YALSA pick from 2011 which has been sitting on my coffee table for weeks. I think the librarians sigh when they see me coming, since I take a gluttonous amount of books and hoard them as long as it takes me to get through them. I never could take just one!

16-year-old Gemma is kidnapped and taken to the Australian desert, where she struggles with her feelings for her captor, Ty. He does not harm her, but tells her quite simply that he plans to keep her forever. Set against a harsh backdrop, the desert and Ty both get under Gemma's skin in unexpected ways. This novel is chilling, made more powerful because Gemma is addressing the book to Ty, making the reader uncomfortably complicit with her kidnapper.

If you like gritty realism, you'll enjoy this excellent novel.

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