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Aug 22, 2011

Annalisa rated it:

When I was a teenager, I remember watching a movie with my family and the couple onscreen kissed for the first time and of course five seconds later were sleeping together. My dad, trying to keep the morality of four teenage girls intact, complained about movies always doing that, making you root for something you didn't believe in. I remember thinking "it's just a movie; you're supposed to want that," because I had wanted it.

Christopher is a smart woman. She realizes this po More...

27 comments like (120 people liked it)

Mar 18, 2011

Lyndsey rated it:

This book completely reaffirmed my fascination with the beautiful land that is Australia.

But the people who live there seem to want everyone to think it's a lot like this:

Or this:

Or even this:

Gemma, just a regular 16 year old school girl, has been captured by a handsome and alluring young Australian man named Ty. Although Gemma seems to think so, it never feels like she's in any imminent danger, from Ty at least. More...

125 comments like (144 people liked it)

Jan 25, 2012

Nina ♥ rated it:

"I made it," you said, gruffly, "for you."
You shoved it onto my finger. It was roughly carved, shaped from a lump of something colourful and cold...a ring made entirely from a gemstone. It was beautiful. It glinted emerald greens and blood reds over my skin, and had tiny flecks of gold catching the light. I couldn't stop staring at it.
"Why?" I asked.
You didn't answer that. Instead you touched the ring gently and looked piercingly at me, unsaid ques More...

20 comments like (43 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2011

Arlene rated it:

Wow!! What an emotional, gripping and addictive book! I was hooked to this story from the beginning and despite how I knew nothing good would come of it, I drove head on collision with the conclusion and was left with a wreckage of angst and sadness.

But before I tell you how I really felt, excuse me a moment, while I self-reflect...

Felt an emotional pull toward the captor? Check.
Believed that he deserved some semblance of happiness because of his past? Check.
Recogn More...

45 comments like (20 people liked it)

Feb 06, 2011

Alexa rated it:

Gemma is a 16-year-old from London. She and her parents are at the airport in Bangkok, preparing to catch a flight to Vietnam, when she meets a man, Ty, who steals her away and changes her life forever. Stolen is a letter written by the victim to the captor. Gemma's letter reveals what happens between her and Ty during her captivity in the Australian outback.

Throughout the book, I had conflicting feelings towards Ty. Which were kind of similar to the way Gemma felt about him. Ty was pa More...

22 comments like (17 people liked it)

Dec 18, 2011

Kristy rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

3 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jul 03, 2010

Zosia rated it:

This book is amazing and disturbing at the same time, and probably the most controversial young adult book I’ll ever read. I’m not even sure it should be a young adult book though the girl, Gemma, is a teenager.

Gemma is from London, and while in transit with her parents in the airport in Bangkok a young man buys her a coffee. He drugs it, and the next coherent thought she has is when she wakes up some days later. In the desert. In Australia. Her captor, Ty, believes he is saving her. More...

14 comments like (32 people liked it)

Feb 04, 2011

Flannery rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

14 comments like (12 people liked it)

Feb 25, 2011

Nic rated it:

Favourite Quote: "Lets face it, you did steal me. But you saved my life too. And somewhere in the middle, you showed me a place so different and beautiful, I can never get it out of my mind. And I can't get you out of there either. You're stuck in my brain like my own blood vessels."

Stolen is one huge emotional rollercoaster ride. It had my stomach all tied up in knots and made my heart ache but it was AMAZING. Truly, a stunning and thought provoking read.

More...

53 comments like (24 people liked it)

Jun 20, 2011

Erica rated it:

On a layover at the Bangkok Airport, Gemma meets someone she thinks she's seen before while she's getting coffee. Soon Gemma is drugged and convinced to leave with this man, Ty. Ty takes her to the Australia desert where Gemma wakes up and realizes what has happened. She's been stolen from her parents on their trip to Vietnam. With no one around for miles, Gemma has to learn to deal with her captor and the harsh surroundings where they live. The book is written as a letter to Ty from Gemma.

I r More...

3 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jul 04, 2011

Wicked Incognito Now rated it:

Kat's review convinced me that I would find this an interesting read.

How right she was! Utterly fascinating. Utterly heart-rending.

This is an example of how stories that are imbued with all the shades and textures of moral ambiguity and life's shakeable ideas of what exactly IS right or wrong are the most interesting stories of all.

Gemma was stolen by a man that is very possibly mentally unstable. But is he evil? Never once does the reader doubt that Ty sh More...

2 comments like (11 people liked it)

Jan 04, 2011

Amy or "Ames" rated it:

Beautiful. Evil, but beautiful. Evil because I now have Stockholm Syndrome. Beautiful because I didn't realise it was happening, the writing was so subtle yet engrossing and real. Gritty.

I fell in love with Ty, the kidnapper. He was so kind, considerate and almost harmless really (Hello, Stockholm!). He'd saved Gemma's life so many times and eventually sacrificed his freedom for her. How can anyone not love him a little for that?

I understood his motivations. He was lonel More...

8 comments like (17 people liked it)

Jun 24, 2011

Elle rated it:

The proud Aussie chick inside me was majorly pissed off with this book.

An English friend of mine (who thinks he's fecking hilarious BTW) recently developed his own slogan for Australian tourism:

"Snakes. Spiders. Jellyfish. Weather.
Australia - countless ways to get assfucked by nature"
- D. Crowley

So you see, we're having a hard enough time AS IT IS to entice the world to visit us without Lucy Christopher raining on our awesome More...

23 comments like (14 people liked it)

Nov 12, 2011

Choco rated it:

My initial thought reading the synopsis was that it was going to explore Stockholm Syndrome and that I was so not interested in it. However, some of my goodreads friends loved it, and their reviews and opinions convinced me to give it a go. I am so glad I read it as it made it to my favourite list, which has only 18 books at this point.

The captor, Ty, is an attractive guy in mid-twenties, and sixteen year-old Gemma finds him attractive when they first meet. From the start I found him More...

23 comments like (6 people liked it)

Apr 11, 2011

Noelle rated it:

Gah. THE FEELINGS. I'm still trying to process them all. This book evoked such a visceral response. I'm not sure if I thought anything the entire time I was reading it but I felt EVERYTHING. There was this constant low level buzz of dread--a wonderful, dazed, hysteria always in the background. I had a knot in my chest the whole book and it is STILL there even now that I'm finished. The Australian outback is such a perfect setting too, filled with beauty and despair. After awhile it starte More...

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jun 14, 2011

Isamlq rated it:

4.5

Somewhere in the beginning: Ty steals her away. I’m angry and a tad disappointed that it all went down so easily. The word that comes to mind: smooth. How could it all have happened so quickly?! But it did… and that is just plain old scary.

Somewhere in the middle: A camel enters the picture. This might be strange but that bit just had me tearing up a bit more (when they caught it, I mean.) It sounds silly, and I suppose it is. But it definitely had me sniff-sniffing a More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 09, 2011

~Tina~ rated it:

TBR Reduce Challenge #9- 2011 (Alexa)

Aussie Book challenge 2011 #2

:Spoiler Alert:

Wow! What an outstanding story!

Lucy Christopher pens a remarkable story that will leave you torn, rattled and emotional raw. She will have you question between madness and sanity, love and obsession and ultimately right and wrong. She will dare you to choose what you know and what you actually feel once this story is said and done.
Stolen has no chapters, it is a More...

17 comments like (16 people liked it)

Jul 05, 2010

Jennifer rated it:

Reviewed by Breia "The Brain" Brickey for TeensReadToo.com

STOLEN is the story of 16-year-old Gemma, who is kidnapped from a Bangkok airport by Ty. What follows is basically a journal of everything that happens to Gemma, written in the form of a letter to Ty.

You don't know at first where Ty has taken her; you only know that she is in the middle of a desert with him. They live in a home that he has built and stocked so he can care for Gemma.

This was, f More...

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Oct 16, 2011

Rea rated it:

Full review can be found here.

I don’t even really know where to begin with this review. This is another case of finding one of those YA lit gems in a vast ocean of mediocre YA books out there. Just like Beth Revis did in Across the Universe, Lucy Christopher has taken all of my prejudices against YA and completely smashed them apart. Stolen sucks you in as of the very first line and ruthlessly demands your undivided attention until the very last line. This book should come with a warni More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 23, 2010

Celine___ rated it:

Ce livre m'a plu par plusieurs points différents. Je suis passée par une belle gamme d'émotions qui font qu'on suit l'évolution un peu inconstante de Gemma, jeune fille arrachée à la vie de la grande ville, expatriée par un inconnu aux allures de serial killer dans le bush australien.

Le style d'écriture est très intéressant, et m'a tout de suite piquée à vif. Toute l'histoire est écrite comme une longue lettre écrite par Gemma, s'adressant à son ravisseur. La toute première scène, l More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 05, 2010

Katie(babs) rated it:

Sixteen year old Gemma Toombs is not thrilled to be leaving her settled life in London, England and heading off to Vietnam with her mother who collects arts. While she has a layover at Bangkok airport, Gemma goes for some coffee and ends up meeting an older, handsome man with intense eyes and a face that seems familiar to her for some reason. Thinking nothing out of the ordinary, Gemma invites him to chat with her, especially since he pays for her coffee and offers to make it the way she likes i More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Oct 14, 2010

Rosanne rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Feb 10, 2012

Liza rated it:

Stolen has a quasi-voyeuristic quality to it as the reader is allowed inside the mind of Gemma who has been kidnapped for a lengthy period by Ty, a compelling, but highly disturbed individual. During a layover at Bangkok Airport the kidnapper, Ty, waits for his opportunity to take Gemma to Australia of all places.

Lucy Christopher wants you to be as confused as Gemma as she deals with the ups and downs of being the captive of a lunatic. As their relationship changes over the course of More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 28, 2011

Angel rated it:

My original review:

I think this book dug out a piece of my soul, it was that life-changing.

Proper review:

Discovery: One of my best friends, Allie, recommended this book. She insisted that I read it because it was too powerful for her to talk about coherently. When someone comes to me with that kind of a reaction to a novel, I go after it immediately.

+ Uncertainty. Most novels give their readers a buoy to hang on to while the story unfolds. It c More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 02, 2011

Loederkoningin rated it:

If Stolen had toyed with my mind a bit more and had not ended quite so abruptly, so unfinished, I would graciously have given it 5 stars. This book grabbed me right from the very first page and lingered afterwards. I was supposed to save it for a long train trip and just wanted to have a little taste by reading the first two pages or so... Consider yourself warned: Stolen will not allow this.

So sixteen year old Gemma gets kidnapped at Bangkok airport. A carefully plotted crime: her More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 27, 2011

Regina rated it:

There may be some spoilers in this review. I had a different reaction than many reviewers. I never sympathized with Ty. He took Gemma's free will and her choices away. Everything he did was focused on his own goals and his own desires and while he pretended that he cared about Gemma's goals or desires, he didn't. If a person truly cares, then they take the risk that they will be rejected or that the other person will say "no" or will disagree. Ty did not allow Gemma this freedom. Ty More...

15 comments like (14 people liked it)

Mar 01, 2011

Jeana rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 20, 2010

Megan rated it:

I have to admit, that I had no interest in reading this one at first. What, another YA book extolling the virtues of a jerky, unstable, and overbearing guy and glorifying a horribly inappropriate relationship? I'll pass! But after reading so many conflicting reviews, I finally decided to give it a try, and am so glad I did.

Stolen is an intense, thought provoking, psychological thriller. On the surface, the issue presented is very black and white. Ty, a man in his early twenties, k More...

2 comments like (6 people liked it)

Apr 06, 2011

Linna rated it:

Right off the bat, I'm going to tell you that STOLEN dazzled me. It's been a long time since a book has captivated me so absolutely, forcing me to read it in one sitting, making it impossible, almost unbearable to put it down.

It's about obsession. A disturbing, twisted case of Beauty and the Beast.

Except this is much, much more mature than the darkest Disney has to offer, and definitely not suitable for younger readers. The utter isolation of the Australian desert almost More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2010

Nomes rated it:

The synopsis? Basically, Ty kidnaps 16 year old UK girl Gemma from Thailand and takes her to his remote place in the Australian outback.
Goodreads blurb quote: Ty, her captor, is no stereotype. He is young, fit and completely gorgeous.

Um, agree :)

This book messed with my mind and made me question right and wrong and all the shades in between.

The writing, holy guacamole, is so evocative that it seeps into you. So so much goodness to crush on. The setting w More...

4 comments like (11 people liked it)