A Stolen Life - Jaycee Dugard

At the young age of 11, Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped and held prisoner for 18 years before she finally escaped with her two daughters. A Stolen Life is her story, her memoir.

This was a hard story to read. What happened to Jaycee was beyond words. I could not fathom what happened, nor how the two responsible could justify it. Yet in the end she is able to forgive her captors and move on, as much as she can, to normal life.  All she wants for her children is a normal life, one that she was never able to have.  I think back to my teens years, and how much I experienced and all the things I would have missed out on had I been missing for 18 years, I would not even be back yet!  My heart breaks and weeps for all that she missed, and all that she went through.

From a more literary/readability standpoint I have to say that this was well written.  She wrote the book from the mind-
frame that she was in at the. Consequently at the beginning it is as if an 11 year old is telling you the story.  Throughout the book she jumps back in, current time, to fill you in on what was happening outside of her life, and reflections based on what she currently knows.  Some people might find this confusing if they have trouble following narrative that does not follow a straight line, however I did not find it to difficult to follow.  I have read memories before that are poorly written, and while you can't fault them for telling their story, they just are not written well enough.  This was definitely NOT the case. It was very well written, even without a ghost writer, and she got her story and message across very well.

I would recommend this book for others to read. I feel that it reminds us that horrible things still happen in our day and age and that we need to pay attention to things that do not feel right or just feels odd. But even while it reminds us of the bad in the world, it also shows us that there is hope.  There is good out there that offsets the bad. Light to outshine the dark.  I give this memoir a 4/5 stars.  I will warn you that the earlier chapters especially are a little graphic, although not so much explicit, it could be a trigger for some people, especially those who have experienced abuse in the past.