Let's get psychological In here.
I remember reading Stolen by Lucy Christopher for the first time my freshman year of high school, putting it down after I was finished, and going, WHOA.
Christopher wrote the book as her thesis for graduate school, and graced the literary world with it after being encouraged to publish it.
The book follows Gemma, a teen girl living in Britain, who is kidnapped in the airport while waiting to vacation with her parents, by her mysterious stalker, Ty. Gemma is smuggled to the Australian outback where Ty has a compound-style house set up.
It is clear from the beginning of the book that Ty is and has been obsessed with Gemma for a long period of time, with flashbacks into her life that he is hidden in, as well as his creepily accurate knowledge of her life and mindset. His obsession with her is the obvious reason he kidnapped her, hoping that she would fall in love with him like he loves her, blah blah.
When I first started the book, I fully expected and applauded Gemma's immediate hatred of Ty. She was defensive, rude, paranoid, and terrified of him and all of his things. What I didn't expect out of Gemma, was her slow transition to not only being comfortable with Ty, but being attracted to him. And then I remembered, she's not stupid or weird or crazy, she's being brainwashed. She has Stockholm syndrome.
Stockholm syndrome, in lay man's terms, is basically when someone begins to like and sometimes love their captors, it is a psychological coping mechanism that is unfortunate, but reasonable. Gemma had been around Ty and only Ty for so long, and saw that he took care of her and went out of his way for her, so it was natural when she began to like being around him and missed him when he was gone. It didn't hurt that Ty is described as ruggedly handsome and fit in the book, which any teen girl is probably going to be attracted to.
Gemma has a lot of internal conflict when the story gets to that crossroads of "he kidnapped me, I hate him," and "he cares for me, I like him." And I think that is exactly what Christopher used the story to explore, the line that is blurred in your psyche when human nature overrides logic and morale. She does an outstanding job not only making Gemma's thought process easy to understand and vivid, but she is also able to manipulate the reader's feelings and moral compass. When the reader, a sane third party, begins to have emotions of affection, pity, and lust for a teenaged kidnapper, they begin to wrestle with their heart and their heads, which is how Gemma feels. Christopher's ability to give the reader a taste of how Stockholm syndrome works and affects the mind and body, is spectacular and mind blowing.
This book stuck with me, I still get chills when I think about it, and I will always be a Lucy Christopher fan solely because the novel was so splendid and evocative. In my Intro to Psychology class in college, I immediately thought of this book when we reached the subject of Stockholm syndrome, and realized just how spot-on Christopher was when describing how Gemma's brain was working, before, during, and after being held captive. Even if psychology isn't your thing, I still strongly suggest this book because it is not only a story of mental and physical tests, but a story that displays life, love, and being a teenager in all its brevity. The rawness of this book is still daunting to me, Christopher never uses useless information or words or scenes, it is simply cut and dry, in and out, begin and end, which I have come to respect and enjoy after reading allusive and boring YA books.
Stolen is definitely one for the ages, a riveting tale of youth, fear, pressure, lust, internal conflict, and danger. I recommend this book to all, though it is a YA novel, I think people of all ages will find this book enticing and rewarding. Go check it out, you won't regret it.
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