I've been kind of giving reviews of books in a mini fashion, not really respecting them enough (or taking the time) to write an entire blog post about a book. It's a good and a bad thing.However, the book I'm about to tell you about made me sick to my stomach. It made me so angry with the male gender, I didn't want my boyfriend to even put his arm around me. I was left with the staggering question, "Why did this happen?"
With no further ado...
A Stolen Life
By: Jaycee Dugard
Rating on Goodreads: ***** of *****
A Stolen Life is Jaycee Dugard's memoir. She was 11 when she was kidnapped, and held captive for eighteen years. In that time, she endured countless tortures, including repeatedly being raped and told to stop
It's hard for me to fathom how men like that can live. It's also difficult for
It is unacceptable that we live in a culture that looks the other way, or slut shames, or does any other awful thing toward women. This book further reiterated why I'm a feminist, why I'm doing what I'm doing at AbortionChat, and why, above all else, I will fight for women.
This book should be read by every single person out there. I didn't give it a five star rating based on writing quality (her formal education was cut off at 5th grade) but instead, by the sheer ability to recount what she'd gone through, and how she's trying to heal.
Brace yourselves. This is NOT a pretty story.
me to have any sympathy towards rapists. Personally, I feel like they should have a "One and Done" mentality, where if it happens, even once, they get dismembered, slowly. Jaycee's rapist had raped a woman before. He was on parole. His parole officer came to the house she was kept at. He went to jail for a month was she was captive. And yet no one discovered her.
crying because it was ruining her rapists fantasies.
OMG I've been waiting and waiting for someone else to read this!!!! It was amazing in a really bizarre and scary way, wasn't it? I mean she is so courageous. I'm so glad she told her story. It was so disturbing on so very many levels. I really loved how candid she was though. I think it's important. I too think everyone needs to read this book!!!! What I was most struck by though was how when she was first taken she really did not understand what was happening to her at all. She was so young. I think if he had taken her when she was older, things might have been different. But at her age she just didn't get what was happening to her. She said in an interview once that she didn't even know what sex was--didn't even have words for it! Plus I don't even think she understood that she had been kidnapped. It really makes you think about other kids who have been abducted so young--if they're still out there. Her therapist just released a book about how to talk to your kids about this kind of stuff and keep them safe. I'm getting ready to read it so I can start talking to my own daughter about things in an age-appropriate way. I had nightmares for weeks after I read this and at the same time, I was truly, deeply amazed at this woman who can still find joy in life after all she went through, after all that was taken from her. When she did that interview with Diane Sawyer right before her book came out, Sawyer asked her why she went into such graphic detail about the sexual abuse and she said, "Why not? Why not look at it? Stare it down until it can't scare you anymore?" OMG, that gives me goosebumps every time I think about it. Such an extraordinary woman.
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing lady, I've heard great things of this book.
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