This was a truly difficult to get through, not because of the writing, but because it was real life and true to what is part of our current time period. JayCee writes of her eighteen years of confinement after being kidnapped at age eleven. Reading about her daily rapes and mental torture made this book appear to be fiction, but knowing that it was not, made it difficult to believe. JayCee has to be the most heroic person I know to have made it through these years and still remain intact, mentally and physically. The importance of knowing about her ordeal makes this book a must-read. Learning more about the organization that she has founded and how she has turned her life around is a really miracle of life. Hopefully, governmental changes have been and are being made to never let this kind of situation happen again.

Sometimes after reading a book I feel deeply impacted, good or bad. I wasn't sure how I felt when I finished this book. I was so sad that this happened to a little girl and that this girl, now woman, will have to live with this the rest of her life. I was sad for her two little girls and for the family that was left wondering for so long. It disgust me that there are people in the world that can cause this much hurt. My book club read this and although the book was interesting, I don't think we got into discussion as much as we have with other books. The fun of a book club is discussing our different takes on a story and our opinions. For the most part I think we all had a shared opinion.

It was difficult to read because of the sensitive subject matter, but she tells her story in a way that blow you away.

This poor woman survived so much, and made it out of alive.

Jaycee Dugard suffered unspeakable horror for 18 years. Kidnapped by a pedophile at age eleven and kept for 18 years, Dugard bore two children and came to depend upon her captor all while striving to maintain her “self” and remember her “real” family, especially her mother.
Her memoir tells of her heroism and fortitude in the face of unrelenting adversity. Often the voice of that eleven year old is heard; often the voice of a struggling 19 year old woman and mother is heard. She, at times, voices a maturity earned through pain. She struggles to shield her children from the press even while acknowledging the impossibility of that task. She struggles to heal herself and rejoin the “normal’ world.
It is impossible to read this memoir without suffering with Jaycee. It is also impossible to justify a critical review of this book. 5 of 5 stars