A Stolen Life by Jaycee Lee DugardMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
It's difficult, if not impossible, not to think about this book after you finish reading the last page. The story itself is, as you probably already know, horrifying, but I find the way it's written no less than outstanding. Reminding myself that she was freed from her isolated world only two years ago, it's really inconceivable how she manages to look back at those 18 years in captivity, analyze and reflect upon the events, and tell the story the way she does. I mean, thinking about how much I learned about life and relationships during my own teenage years, I'm amazed by her attitude toward life and the understanding and importance of it after not having had, more or less, no other relationships with other human beings during 18 years, except her two keepers and her two in-captivity born daughters.
Her personal strength is also what made me so lost in her book. I was especially grasped by reading the excerpts from her secret journal, which in this book reveals entries written between 1998 and 2007. This was probably the toughest and most difficult part of the book to read, as it gets very personal. It's nowhere near easy to read about the physical abuse and the living conditions either, but reading about her hopelessness, all the confusion and her lonely soul was even more difficult, at least for me. But by reading those entries, you'll also discover her genuine passion for writing. She mentioned in those entries that writing a bestseller is one of her greatest dreams. Even though this probably wasn't the way she intended becoming one, I'm still very glad for her sake that she was able to write and publish this book, and indeed making it a successful one and becoming an actual bestselling writer.
I wish you all the best, Jaycee Dugard. Thank you for accumulating enough courage to share the story and your thoughts with us. I've learned a lot about life thanks to you.
View all my reviews