Stolen by Lucy Christopher

What it's about (from Goodreads): Sixteen year old Gemma is kidnapped from Bangkok airport and taken to the Australian Outback. This wild and desolate landscape becomes almost a character in the book, so vividly is it described. Ty, her captor, is no stereotype. He is young, fit and completely gorgeous. This new life in the wilderness has been years in the planning. He loves only her, wants only her. Under the hot glare of the Australian sun, cut off from the world outside, can the force of his love make Gemma love him back? The story takes the form of a letter, written by Gemma to Ty, reflecting on those strange and disturbing months in the outback. Months when the lines between love and obsession, and love and dependency, blur until they don't exist - almost.

What I learned: I want to visit the Australian outback. It sounds unbelievably gorgeous. I love books that have strange and unique settings where the land and weather are almost a character themselves (Tangerine by Edward Bloor is another example) and I wish there were more of them.

On a more serious note though, I would say that I learned that reality and emotions are incredibly difficult to analyze and understand. At the end of the book, Gemma knows that there are two realities, two ways of explaining her relationship with Ty. Both are completely true but neither is wholly true. I think that normal people often feel this dichotomy in a much less intense and horrifying way. There are so many ways to look at each small event in life and how we choose to look at something colors our emotions about it. Gemma can choose to focus on Ty's love for her and how he kept her safe, giving up his own freedom for her life and feel love for him. But she can also choose to focus on how Ty robbed her of her life, her friends and family, and the contentment she had at home and feel hate for him. The way we look at the world and our circumstances affects how we feel about things and I think it's important to acknowledge that even in the most difficult situations we still have a choice about our reactions.

If you've read Stolen, what did you learn?