A Stolen Life: A Memoir

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 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 show more 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

Jaycee Dugard was only 11-years old in 1991 when she was snatched from the street while she walked to school one morning. She was raped and imprisoned for 18 years before she got out with her two daughters, born to her at ages 14 and 17.

How horrifying! I can’t even imagine. I vaguely remember hearing the name somewhere along the way, but don’t remember hearing what actually happened. (But then (sadly), there seem to have been a number of these, so I may also be confusing some of them). This book is not for the faint of heart, as it does go into detail on the sexual abuse – at least to describe the first time Philip did each of these horrible things to her, though later in the book, it wasn’t mentioned as much... certainly show more wasn’t described in detail later. And Philip’s wife, Nancy, was a party to all of this, right from helping him the day they kidnapped her!

Jaycee mixes what she remembers from when it was happening with reflections (at the end of many chapters) to describe what she thinks/feels as she looks back, and with journal entries from the time - one journal focusing on one of the many cats that she had while in captivity and one journal that goes through some of the last decade or so of her captivity. Some of the writing was simple – Jaycee only had a grade 5 education before she was kidnapped – but that didn’t detract from my interest to keep reading and find out what happened and how she got out. The end does focus on some of the recovery and reunion with her mom, sister, and aunt after she got out with her daughters. 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 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 show more that question. show less

wow, kidnapped at 11; raped, traumatized, subjugated, confined, and twice impregnated and then thrust into freedom at 29... Jaycee's heroic survival philosophical/intellectual development by dint of determination tells us something huge about this individual now positioned to tell us much about the scope of possibilities in the human spirit.

she compiles, tentatively and painfully, of her harrowing life, privation, cruelty endured from recollection and journals. Through this experience she heaped love and hope on cats, the moon, and eventually her two daughters lied into masquerading as her sisters.

I found her authentic and unornamented telling of her hellish journey potently affecting and an easy read.

"10 things that make me Happy

1. Hearing someone laugh
2. When my cats are near me
3. Birds singing
4. When animals like me
5. Blue skies and puffy clouds
6. The rain
7. Having something fun to do
8. The ocean
9. When someone says something kind to me
10. Knowing someone loves me"

Jaycee Lee Dugard wrote that in her diary on February 3, 2004. She was 24-years-old and had been imprisoned for 13 years. She wouldn't be rescued for another 5 years.

I don't know how you can give this book fewer than five stars. Every bit of it is as painfully honest and childlike as that list, and it is amazing. More than any other memoir I have read, this story belongs to its author, the girl who lived it, and because of that, I cannot say any aspect of it should be show more anything other than what it is. Dugard did not use a ghostwriter. She wrote this herself, seemingly with no input other than that of the innocent 11-year-old girl who is clearly still a large part of grown-up Jaycee.

It took me less than a day to read Dugard's account of the 18 years stolen from her, and there is something strange and horrifying about that, even apart from the awfulness of the tale itself. I almost feel like I should have labored over every word, dragging on, with no expectation of ever reaching the end. Because that's what the majority of her life has been and what is recorded in this book. But I'm confident that's not what Jaycee herself would want. She would want the reader of this book to do what she herself is doing: taking those lessons that are worth remembering from her story and letting the rest melt away, allowing her to continue forward, finally, into real life. show less

I am so impressed with Dugard! We all know her story and probably have the same questions: why didn’t she run when she finally started being given some freedom after years of captivity, how could her existence in a sex offender’s backyard go undetected for 18 years, how did she get away, and how are she and girls coping now? And for me, this book provided most of those answers, although not in a straightforward way. In fact, I doubt a straightforward telling would have answered the first question at all, because most of us will have no experiences we can use to compare with hers. Instead, she uses multiple small chapters to highlight the main events she recalls, as she remembers experiencing them, interspersed with reflections on show more her memories from today’s viewpoint. There are also journal entries which add to the overall sense of sharing how her inner life changed over the years. I picked the book up to read about how she’s doing since being freed, and ended up reading the whole book in a few hours. I simply couldn’t put it down.

If you read this, start on the very first page, the “author’s note”. Every single page is worthwhile, even the acknowledgements at the end. Most important of all, though, is Dugard’s warning in the introduction: My goal is to inspire people to speak out when they see that something is not quite right around them. We live in a world where we rarely speak out and when someone does, often nobody is there to listen. My hope is that society changes in regards to how we treat someone who speaks out….For many, it is so much easier to live in a self-made “backyard” that it can be tough and scary to venture out and leave that comfort zone behind. It is so worth it, though. You could be saving a person or a family who is not able to save themselves. show less

This was a simple recounting of the events that happened to Jaycee Dugard. It wasn't overly graphic, which I appreciated.

It's simple and still compelling. In some ways, it's too simple, because it reads like an 11 year old's journal. But, there is the fact that she had no more than a fifth grade education and did the best she could.

This seems to be a sticking point in many of the reviews I read, about why it wasn't written better. In order for the language to be more polished, or it to be written better it would have had to have been heavily edited or ghostwritten, and that would have made it fake. It's difficult to edit someone's life experiences especially those of this particular nature.

I have to admit curiosity got to me and I'm show more very intrigued about what is going on with the family, but I especially understand and respect their need for privacy.

This book isn't as powerful or catching as I originally had thought it might be but it still packs a punch. show less