That cover is so misleading; this book is full of batshit crazies!! I mean, would you even dare think about Stockholm Syndrome or kidnapping when you see that girly font + orange butterfly?? Okay, I guess one would... One that has read synopsis and excerpts of the book, like yours truly LOL! But I think it just fits well with how I think the book wants to represent itself: a letter from the 16-year-old London girl, Gemma, to her creepy (but hoooot sssss) 25-year-old captor, as this def appealed to me like a diary I shouldn't be snooping in. But y'all!! (Y'ALL!! Clearly, I am having a hangover of Suzanne Supplee's Artichoke's Heart) This book is one you must totally be snooping in! The premise of the story alone is thrilling (at the same time, chilling), and the writing I thought was v. on-point as it was gripping. Lucy Christopher, you deserve to graduate with flying colors on that doctoral program (that is, if you haven't yet; if already have, then congratulations!!), to which you wrote this book for. You delivered a story that pulled a lot of mighty strings - in heart and in mind.

Yay!s
-It's kind of a forbidden love story and while we all know how we can be such suckers for that, Christopher wrote it in such a way that will make you think MORE of the moral choices than the emotional ones. (As in Earth to Gemma, why would you fall in love with someone who did you wrong, very wrong?) Def a big check on MIND OVER MATTER.
-Gemma, the protagonist (err, victim?) was a tigress! She was not described as anything special (which is a plus for Christopher; special girls are for John Green lol) but most time, I imagined her with stripes and piercing eyes, ready to pounce - as in kill - her deer-like captor Ty, who seemed to be the biggest contradictory, as he was presented so physically perfect but mentally disturbed and emotionally weak. And for those reasons, both of them do NOT fit into the Australian outback setting - they belonged to the jungle!!
-Speaking of Ty, I liked how ~perfect he turned out to be (painter, cooker, doctor, carpenter, Superman, etc.), after all that drugging and kidnapping shiznit he did in the first part of the book. I think I kind of fell in love with him......
-WHICH IS MAD, as Gemma would say! Hello, Stockholm Syndrome, is that you?? Well, it might just be. And that's THE thing that Christopher did here: She asked questions, dropped a couple of hints, but never did give away the answers! I LOVE IT WHEN I GET TO DECIDE WHAT I WANT TO HAPPEN TO THE CHARACTERS IN THE STORY.
-A freaking camel stars in this one - WHACHU WAITING FOR NOW??
-Since Gemma was from London and Ty was an Aussie, I HAD SO MUCH FUN IMAGINING THEIR VOICES IN MY HEAD.
-AUSTRALIA OUTBACK! Bring back a bit of your Survivor fanaticism and sunbathe in the awesomeness of the desert!
-Has one of the best fictional love confessions in history, imho

Boo!s
-As I said, there was a struggle of wanting Gemma and Ty to get together forever and wanting Ty to be bitten and poisoned by a snake himself and then imprisoned for a lifetime. I admit I was feeling for the creeper... A LOT, at that, and I wanted Gemma to save him just like how he said he "saved" her from all the "pretentiousness of the city," but SERIOUSLY THE WAY TY GAVE GEMMA UP WAS JUST UGGHHHHHHHHHH. Why is the snake always the bad guy? Why couldn't it be the camel, huh, Ms. Christopher?
-It was awful not to know what happened in the trial against Ty, and all the ever-afters. (HOWEVER, I AM NOT REQUESTING FOR A SEQUEL. This was more than good enough.)