Author: Lucy Christopher
Year: 2009
Publisher: Chicken House
Date Read: 03-19-2011
Overall: * * * * * (5/5)
GoodReads Blurb: Sixteen year old Gemma is kidnapped from Bangkok airport and taken to the Australian Outback. This wild and desolate landscape becomes almost a character in the book, so vividly is it described. Ty, her captor, is no stereotype. He is young, fit and completely gorgeous. This new life in the wilderness has been years in the planning. He loves only her, wants only her. Under the hot glare of the Australian sun, cut off from the world outside, can the force of his love make Gemma love him back? The story takes the form of a letter, written by Gemma to Ty, reflecting on those strange and disturbing months in the outback. Months when the lines between love and obsession, and love and dependency, blur until they don't exist - almost.
Plot: * * * * *
Characters: * * * * *
Style: * * * *
My Review: This was a really original story line. The story is written as a letter from Gemma to Ty, her captor. The language felt a bit strange at first, but I think that's because the author is from Wales and has lived in Australia. I really liked reading the story from Gemma's point of view, because I felt confused right along with her.
Both Gemma and Ty were really well developed characters. Gemma's flashbacks to home and to her friends showed both how much she missed home and show she had mixed feelings about the relationships she had with people there. Ty wasn't really raised by either of his parents and feels only a connection with the land and to Gemma, so he tried to bring the two together to live in a perfect little bubble in the outback. I think Ty's problems all stem from his childhood and that he honestly meant well the whole time, but did not understand the correct way to "save" people.
This may be the minority opinion, I'm not really sure, but I kind of wanted Gemma and Ty to live together in the Australian Outback forever. I still can't decide if Gemma had stockholm syndrome or not, because I was falling in love Ty as she sort of was, too. It was obviously awful that he kidnapped and drugged her, because he took away her ability to decide for herself, but I really felt for him and his upbringing (or lack of).
Maybe Lucy Christopher just wrote it so well that as I reader I got stockholm syndrome, I don't know. But the part of Ty that wasn't manipulative was really sweet and caring, and I felt that he just wanted to show Gemma real beauty and to save her from the shallowness of her life before.
I should also add that I do not condone kidnapping, unless it's in a work of fiction, then I'm cool with it.
Also by this author: Flyaway (coming Oct 2011)
Currently Reading: Beautiful Creatures by Garcia & Stohl, and Keturah and Lord Death by Leavitt
Books Read in 2011: 30 (or 100)
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