A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard

A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard

Don’t think I’m going to say anything you haven’t heard before — Jaycee Dugard’s story is heart wrenching. The things she went through were truly awful and unpleasant to read about. Her story makes it hard to live in a world where people like her kidnapper exist.

The way that she writes is stunted and difficult to get through, which she acknowledges by saying she’s not a natural storyteller. She just felt like her story needed to be shared. I read for content rather than lyricism or focusing on every word as it was largely repetitive and thus went through it quickly. The events and images will stick with me.

Worth reading for the sake of compassion and gaining understanding. I also thought it was interesting how Dugard doesn’t “know” why she did a lot of things, which I believe is true for most of us — she can’t always explain her actions, she can only tell you them, and I thought that was powerful. I would suggest “skim” reading if you start to get frustrated with her writing, because the story is powerful even when the writing is not.