"It happened like this. I was stolen from an airport. Taken from everything I knew, everything I was used to. Taken to sand and heat, dirt and danger. And he expected me to love him. This is my story. A letter from nowhere."
Authors purpose
In many books authors connect or relate their books to their life now or in the past. In the book the main character Gemma,was kidnapped by a man, taking her to Australia Often times the main character would try to escape, but she realized that is was a hopeless cause. After long she starts liking Australia and the man the captured her. The main character was often scared of Australia but at the same time was amazed by its terrifying beauty. Lucy Christopher often relates her book to her life in the past. Lucy Christopher often relates her self to the character Gemma , that was captured.She relates her time moving from whales to Australia and feeling trapped. She did not understand why she was moving, she was forced and felt captured. She also related to the main character by her feeling of Australia, it's terrifying beauty. But after awhile she soon starts to like Australia and no longer missed the city life. The theme of the book in captured and being lost. I think that the author relates to the theme of lost and captured very well.
character & plot
In the book stolen there are two main characters. The first is Ty, is the kidnapper. Ty is a man in his 20s. Ty was born in Australia, living with his father. Ty ran away at a young age, and lived by himself in the wilderness. Ty soon after got captured and was brought to hi mother in England. He met a 10 year old Gemma, and feel in love with her. He started following her and started to get closer to her. He wanted her, the only way he thought he could have her was by capturing her and and moving to Australia. The next character is Gemma. Gemma is a 16 year old girl that lived in England. She often got in trouble and would fight with her parents. She was a free willed person. She was going on a family trip when she saw a handsome man looking her way. Soon after she was captured and drugged, not know what was going on. Gemma often tries to escape Ty but she could not. She soon finds friendship with a camel her and Ty caught, and soon starts to enjoy Ty and thinks she is starting to love him.
Themes & Symbols
Captured, stolen, lost, alone, love, these are some of the few themes in this book. Captured, is a feeling of being trapped and often feeling hopeless. this book portrays a strong theme of being captured. Gemma, the main character feels hopeless and captured not only in a random mans house but also in her mind.“Why?” I whispered.“I had to take you.” "When the deadness gets easier, you know you're sinking deeper, becoming dead yourself."- Ty Pg. 166. This quote explains the theme of captured and hopelessness very well. It explains how no matter what she will always feel trapped and dead. Next theme I think is very important is love. Love in this book is not the most obvious theme, but it is a very important one. Even though Gemma hates ty for capturing her, she still finds herself loving him ( she thinks ). “Those blue, blue eyes, icy blue, looking back at me as if I could warm them up. They’re pretty powerful, you know, those eyes, pretty beautiful, too.” This quote shows how she was physically in love with Ty. S he loved him for his looks and later for his warm spirit. Gemma is not the only character who showed love in this book, Ty also showed love. He loved Gemma. Ty loved Gemma for more that 6 years, he has alway admired her for her beauty. and he would always love her.
“And it's hard to hate someone once you understand them.”
“And it's hard to hate someone once you understand them.”
Reader's Journal
When I first started reading this book i honestly hated it. It seemed like a cheesy love story. But once I really got into it i loved it. I loved the mystery of the book. This book is one of the best books i have read. I am really not a reader, but this book challenged me to keep on reading because it was so good. While reading this book i realized how much i really did like reading. I also learned that i enjoy books with a lot of suspense and drama. I loved this book because of the author's word choices and the way she set the mood of the book. I loved how the author developed the characters to have similar stories and having the characters battle the whole time. This book really got me thinking about how much this stuff actually happens now. Kids get kidnapped daily and often drugged, what do we do about it? What can we do about it? I really like books that challenge the reader to get up and do something . When reading this book there were a few messages/themes that i found important or interesting. The first one is a question, "can love be forced?" . In this book it seems like Gemma is in a way forced to love this stranger, and that had me thinking can true love really be forced? The second message i got was being trapped in your mind can be as hard or harder than actually being trapped. Being trapped in your mind is sometime dangerous because you never let your feelings out and it is all building up in your mind, and that can sometimes be very stressful causing you do to do scary things. This book is great read and i hope you read it and get as much as i did out of it.