I am back with another book review, Amy Chelsea Stacie Dee by Mary G. Thompson. Thanks so much to Penguin Random House for sending me a copy of this book for an honest review. As always, all opinions are my own.
Ok, so this book, it's messed up. But I also couldn't put it down. I started it at 10 pm, and told myself at 12, I was going to bed. It got to 12 and I just couldn't stop. I had to know what was going to happen, and I couldn't go to bed without knowing the ending
This story follows 16 year old Amy, who has just made it back home after being kidnapped, and held captive for 6 years. Which should be great, and it is, but she came back without her cousin, Dee, who was also kidnapped with Amy. Amy comes home to find that her parents divorced; they couldn't handle it, her father remarried and has two stepchildren and her brother won't talk to her. Amy's aunt, Dee's mom is demanding answers, Where's Dee? Is she alive? Who took you? How did you escape? But Amy can't talk, otherwise something terrible will happen.
I won't say too much more about plot, because things get crazy, and you just have to experience that for yourself.
I really enjoyed the writing style, everything is told in Amy's perspective, and there are flashbacks to when Amy was still held captive. I thought that pacing was great, its a bit slow at points, but that just adds to the suspense and thrill. When we finally find out what happened and why Amy can't tell, it is shocking. Devastatingly so. I cannot even begin to fathom what it must have been like for either of the girls.
I can't remember the last time that I read a book that physically made me nervous. Like really nervous. Deep breathing in the corner, rocking back and forth nervous. The end of this book, it did that to me.
This book also deals not only with the psychological trauma Amy endured, but also having to re-adjust to real life. She was 10 when she was taken. Dee was 12. They missed middle school, most/all of high school. So much happened in that time period, even the little things. They don't know what music is popular, they don't know what music they missed. These things are hard enough to deal with, let alone coming home to two new families, and trying to remember it's okay not to just wear purple all the time.
I will just mention briefly, even though this book is labelled as Young Adult, I would definitely say that it is for the more mature of the YA readers, as it deals with such a serious topic, as well as includes repeated assaults.
The only reason why I didn't give this one a full five stars was because I was confused by a couple parts. One of which being what happened to Dee. I mean, I *know* what happened to her, but I felt like there could have been a little more depth on how her part of the story is described. I would have even loved a couple chapters from her POV, not alternating, but just a couple here and there to see how things were affecting her mentally.
I also want to say, this is not an easy book to read. There were passages were it was uncomfortable and disgusting, but that made it feel real and gritty. I think that also goes with the territory. You can't have a kidnapping story and have everything sunshine and rainbows. Nobody ever kidnapped someone because they wanted a friend and treated them well. Kyle is definitely not a remotely decent human being, and some of the things he says and does are horrendous. But he's a kidnapper.
Overall, definitely give this book a go if you are interested, or are just looking for a dark kidnapping book.