Review: Girl, Stolen

Girl, Stolen by April Henry
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Pub. Date: September 28th, 2010
Pages: 213
Age Level: 14+

Synopsis via Goodreads
Sixteen year-old Cheyenne Wilder is sleeping in the back of a car while her mom fills her prescription at the pharmacy. Before Cheyenne realizes what's happening, their car is being stolen--with her inside! Griffin hadn’t meant to kidnap Cheyenne, all he needed to do was steal a car for the others. But once Griffin's dad finds out that Cheyenne’s father is the president of a powerful corporation, everything changes—now there’s a reason to keep her. What Griffin doesn’t know is that Cheyenne is not only sick with pneumonia, she is blind. How will Cheyenne survive this nightmare, and if she does, at what price?

Review
Girl, Stolen is a gripping and powerful story full of emotion that will grab your attention from the very beginning.

Cheyenne is probably one of the most courageous characters I've ever come across. Being both blind and sick with pneumonia, she still never gives up trying to break free and continuously proves just how brave she is throughout the book. Even though she's 16 there something about her voice that made her seem younger, more innocent. Well let me tell you folks, it's an illusion because this is one girl who was by no means some helpless young victim. That's something I really loved about her. Then there is Griffin whom despite having kidnapped our heroine, I couldn't help but like and feel sorry for. He was a case of a teen stuck in a very bad situation. Honestly, I wouldn't even consider him the bad guy of this story and he turned out to be more complex and well-developed then I would have expected. Though not really having many options, he did realize that he indeed had a choice. Griffin and Cheyenne were really both a great set of characters.

Girl, Stolen was well crafted novel; it was both fast-paced and full of suspense keeping me anxious to find out what would happen next. Though the premise of a girl being kidnapped isn't exactly the most original, the fact that Cheyenne was blind definitely threw in that extra needed to twist. I would, however, have liked to have seen this book be a little bit longer, spanning over more time.

I thought the writing was very well done. It was told in third-person, alternating perspectives between Cheyenne and Griffin and I thought this really was the best way to write this book. The third-person narrative provided a slightly less biased view point while the alternating perspectives showed me both sides of the story. Something I found really interesting was that when I would read about Cheyenne, the writing made me feel as though I were seeing things as both a sighted and blind person at the same time. It would actually kinda spook me when I'd look up from the book and realize I could see everything. The only real flaws I found in the writing were two small incidents of contradictory descriptions. Otherwise, very great writing style.

The ending left off with an unanswered question and while normally this would bother me, it didn't much because I'm pretty sure I know the answer. This is the second book I've read recently that has ended like this. Only in this case, it was a verbally spoken question from one MC to the other. Overall, I would have to say I actually liked the ending.

So in the end, Girl, Stolen had great characters, plot, writing, and ending. However, and I can't quite put my finger on it, there was something that just kept me from really loving this book. Maybe it was because I felt slightly disconnected or maybe it had something more to do with me. I did still like it though and would highly recommend it to both teens and even adults. It is a book I plan to re-read and I'm looking forward to reading more of Henry's work, especially Shock Point which is sitting on my bookcase.

Grade
Characters: B+
Writing: B
Plot: B
Ending: B-
Enjoyment/Likability: C+
Recommendable: B+

Overall: B

Cover: C+