My Thoughts: Girl, Stolen by April Henry

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?


**Finished copy received from Raincoast Books**





The concept of Girl, Stolen by April Henry was really interesting. The idea of a sixteen year old girl being kidnapped is freaky, but a sixteen year old girl who is also blind and completely vulnerable is way unnerving.  I had high hopes for Girl, Stolen. A blind teenager completely at the mercy of her kidnapper; a teenage boy who has been the victim of abuse for the majority of his life. However, Girl, Stolen fell a little short for me.

As I mentioned before, the story itself was a good idea and it started out alright. Cheyenne getting kidnapped and her inability to see him or what was going on around her was intensely stressful. Henry did a good job at demonstrating the anxiety of the situation. She also did a good job of expressing not only Cheyenne's fear but Griffin's nerves as well. I really liked this about the writing- this was a story of high emotions and intense situations and it never became trivial.

I was a little disappointed by how quickly everything went. I felt like Henry could have gone a little deeper with the story. I felt like she could have explored the dynamics of Griffin and the relationship he had with his father. She also could have also developed the relationship between Griffin and Cheyenne. All these things were alluded to, but they only just grazed the surface.  There were numerous things that just grazed the surface.

Overall this was a fairly good read with good writing, however it had a lot of potential which was not taken advantage of.

Girl, Stolen is hits the shelves in paperback tomorrow (March 13th).

~Happy Reading Everyone!