Jaycee Dugard

Jaycee Dugard is one of my sheroes. She exhibits an inner strength and courage that is not found in many people, of any age, and she had to develop that strength when she was so heartbreakingly young.

Everyone knows the basic details of Jaycee's story - she was kidnapped by a convicted rapist and his wife, brutally raped and abused for years, kept in a backyard compound where she bore two children and lived for 18 years, before some alert college campus cops figured out something was "off" show more about the two young girls that Phillip Garrido had brought with him to pitch his ?book? ?presentation?

This is her sharing from the inside, as best she could remember, in many places with scraps of her own journals. What she felt, what she remembers, how she felt about it, later, after she recovered her name and life.

It's raw, and very little editing was done. So for some people, that's a stumbling point. Knowing that Jaycee's education stopped at fifth grade, I think she did an amazing job.

As she did with her daughters, who clearly she loves very much. There's an innate conflict there, because no matter how she feels about him, her rapist and kidnapper was their father. Someday (if they haven't already), her daughters may read what she had to say about him, about them and their life in that tented "compound."

18 years - I am not sure I would be still alive or sane after 18 years. She could so easily have taken her own life, or done/said the wrong thing and "made" that madman kill her, but she survived, and found pleasure in small things, in pets and her daughters and fought fiercely for their education, looking up lessons on the Internet and printing out worksheets.

And if you wonder why she (or anyone) in a situation of domestic violence or captivity didn't run on the rare occasions she was allowed out in public, didn't try to send a message through the Internet, this memoir will help you understand.

Emotionally it's a very difficult read in many places, but inspiring, too. If nothing else, I urge you to buy a copy to support Jaycee, whether you ever read it or not. show less

This book is heartbreaking, uplifting, disturbing and shocking all at the same time. I was gripped by the book from the outset. Some people have complained that it was very muddled in its writing style and confusing as a result. Well for someone who was taken away from school and all social interaction at the age of eleven I was not surprising and perhaps the story benefitted from this as it truely felt like we were reading her thoughts on her experiences and not some ghost written account. show more For all the awful experiences detailed in the book I found the parts towards the end which dealt with her adjustment to life outside captivity the most moving. She highlight the difficulties of doing normal things stuff we take for granted and also the value in the simple things that we usually take for granted like eating a proper dinner around a table with her children(something denied her during captivity). I finished the book hoping that she and her family have finally been allowed to live the 'normal' family life that Jaycee must have craved so much during those years in captiviy. Well worth the read. show less

Jaycee Dugard’s account of her abduction and imprisonment is a testimony to the resilience and survival of the human spirit and soul. At age eleven, tasered into unconsciousness and kidnapped by a sexual predator and his wife, Jaycee is kept under his control for eighteen years. Jaycee lived a life of unthinkable horror, deprived of the many of the basic necessities of life and abused daily in horrible ways. Dependent on her kidnappers, she is not only physically abused but also mentally show more and emotionally, so much so that when she is about to be rescued, she really cannot say who she is or what has happened to her. This gripping tale is a difficult one to read, but Jaycee makes it clear that she is a survivor first and foremost. We may see her as a victim, but she doesn’t present herself that way. Good has come to her through the two daughters she bore while in captivity. She is thankful to be reunited with the mother she has always loved and she will not let the horror she lived through taint the life she has now. And that she had the courage to tell her story to the world illustrates her mettle and strength of mind and character. show less

I could never recommend this book to anyone because it was so difficult to read, but it was truly an incredible book. I had nightmares after the first half, the brutal, honest account in graphic detail (and I even had the feeling she left some of the most horrific parts out) of exactly what happened to her after she was kidnapped by a psychopathic pedophile. Although she apologized in the beginning for the book's non-linearity, this was what, to me, was most powerful - it was written as it show more must have been felt, experienced, by the girl of eleven.

I read it because when I heard the story on the news, I wanted to understand the psychological dynamics that led to her not trying to escape during all those years. The book, amazingly, answered that question. show less