A STOLEN LIFE Review -- Jaycee Dugard

A Stolen Life: A Memoir by Jaycee Dugard

My rating: 4 of 5 stars




Anyone else getting "If I Die Young" vibes here?



Now, on a more serious note, the subject of kidnappings has driven me wild all my life. When I was a youngster (and I still am, but I mean when I was a young youngster), kidnappings were the stuff of nightmares for me. In kindergarten, I had a dream I was in class at a party at night, and when I went out into the hallway alone, this guy



put me in a big black bag and carried me away into the night. I peed the bed that night and went into my dad's bed crying.



Yeah. Kidnappings and I have a long (and indirect) history with each other. So, imagine my inevitable surprise when I'm surfing Goodreads one day and I find out that the eighteen-year-span kidnapping survivor had written a book. I knew nothing else of the world but the fact that I needed to read this book at some point in my life. This book would benefit me more than food after a three-day fast (which I've never participated in, by the way), not just to inform me more about what Jaycee went through but about how I need to get over my fears and come to terms with them.



This book did just that, and while it may not have the best writing I've ever read (actually, far from it) or the best structure (again, far from it), this book helped me to overcome something that kept me up at night. It helped me realize that stranger kidnappings are really rare, and if I were the target of one, I could escape. It's helped me become more secure in myself as a person and overcome my fears.



Hearing little tapping noises in the middle of the night would set my heart on full-panic mode, and I'd lie awake for hours thinking it was someone tapping a creepy, grimy fingernail on my window, peering in, waiting for me to come to them and let them take me away. In all reality, it might've been a mouse running through the walls, but I'd instantly set my mind on the worst and believe it to be true.



A STOLEN LIFE may not be the best book out there quality-wise, but if you're like me, it may help you overcome a challenge in life.



View all my reviews