Book Review: A Stolen Life
A Stolen Life: A Memoir by Jaycee Dugard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
In 1991 Jaycee Dugard was a typical American eleven-year old girl. Then one day she was kidnapped by Phillip Garrido and held captive by him and his wife Nancy for the next eighteen years. She was raped multiple times and ultimately bore two daughters while in captivity. She also endured horrific emotional abuse as well.
It was hard to believe while reading A Stolen Life that Jaycee Dugard only has a fifth grade education. She did a great job expressing what she felt while in captivity and how she feels now that she’s free. I liked how she wrote about her time in captivity from the perspective of the child she was at that time without filtering her experience through her adult eyes. Then from time to time, she interjects with a “reflection” which is her adult self analyzing and interpreting the events as she sees them now looking back on them.
I really appreciated the honesty and sincerity that Jaycee told her story with. She seems like a surprisingly well-adjusted person now which definitely made reading about the horrors she went through a little easier. I do wish she would have written more about how she and her daughters have adjusted to life after being freed but I understand her wish to protect her daughters’ privacy and to try and get them and herself out of the spotlight as quickly as possible.
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