Review: GIRL, STOLEN by April Henry

August 19, 2010

GIRL, STOLEN
Author: April Henry
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Pages: 213
ISBN: 9780805090055
Publication date: 28 September 2010
Review book source: ARC from the author¹

Summary
From the publisher: Sixteen year-old Cheyenne Wilder is asleep in the back of a car while her mom fills her prescription at the pharmacy. Before Cheyenne realizes what’s happening, their car is being stolen—with her inside! Griffin hadn’t meant to kidnap Cheyenne, all he wanted to do was steal a car to impress his low-life dad. But once Griffin’s dad finds out that Cheyenne’s father is the president of a powerful corporation, everything changes—now there’s a reason to keep her. Cheyenne is not only sick with pneumonia, she is also blind. Can Cheyenne survive this nightmare—and at what price?

My thoughts
Having not read any of Henry’s other books, I opened this one with a little trepidation. I was worried that Cheyenne’s blindness would be a gimmick or a crutch or the central point of another “noble disabled person overcomes his or her disability” narrative, but–as far as I can tell as an able-bodied person–Henry doesn’t fall back on tired stereotypes. Cheyenne’s blindness is just another part of who she is. It makes some things more difficult and she has to do some things differently, but she’s still able to live a life with friends and school and family and interests.

And in fact, Henry does more than just avoid stereotypes: she does a great job of explaining some of the different tools and techniques Cheyenne uses to get around or gather information on what’s going on around her, and she touches on a number of disability awareness issues. The reader learns about how Cheyenne’s guide dog helps her navigate a busy street or school hallway, how she uses her cane sometimes, that she has a Braille watch and a computer that can read to her (although she prefers books on CD!), and how she had to relearn things like eating. But we also learn from Cheyenne that it’s okay to say “see you later;” that when she and her guide dog are out in public, the dog is working and shouldn’t be petted or cuddled; and that when Cheyenne goes out to eat with her family, it bothers her if the waiter or waitress asks her parents what Cheyenne will be having, as if Cheyenne can’t decide for herself.

It’s natural–especially for young people–to be curious about people with disabilities, and I think this book handles that curiosity well, answering questions and still making Cheyenne a sympathetic, multi-dimensional character. Her blindness does not define her–her courage in the face of being kidnapped and her compassion and ability to see the good in those around her do. This book isn’t about a blind person. It’s about a girl who is, among other things, blind.

This book sucks you in quickly (the first chapter is only two pages long and introduces a stepmother, an illness, a carjacker, and Cheyenne’s blindness) and the action moves along at a good clip throughout the story. Narration alternates between Cheyenne and Griffin’s points of view, and Henry builds tension well, providing occasional interludes of reflection or quiet conversation between Cheyenne and Griffin that only seem to heighten the danger when Roy returns. This is a very suspenseful narrative, and the ending is especially nerve-wracking with one final twist that legitimately surprised me and made me all the more impressed at Cheyenne’s ability to outsmart her captors and escape.

Henry also blends conflict and drama with characters who have their own detailed backstories that come out as the action progresses. The way Cheyenne and Griffin find common ground and things to respect in one another sort of surprised me: most of the kidnapping narratives I’ve read are only about the emotional trauma the protagonist is suffering, so I liked the mix of action and character development in GIRL, STOLEN. Overall, Henry successfully balances lots of different elements, and it makes for a great story.

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¹ April Henry is coordinating a couple of traveling ARCs. I emailed her with my name and address, which she put on a list. Once my name got to the top of the list and someone else finished the ARC, she gave that person my address and the other reader sent the book to me. Now that I’m finished, I’ll be sending this copy on to another librarian on April’s list. I really like this ARC sharing circle and I’d like to see more authors (or publicists or fans or librarians?) coordinate things like it in the future!

Update: when I emailed April to get the next person on the list, she and I had a short discussion about her inspiration for GIRL, STOLEN. She wrote,

“I first conceived of the story after the local news talked about a teen girl who was taken in exactly the same fashion. The only difference was the guy forced her out of the car three blocks later. I immediately knew I wanted to write this story. But I worried that it would be untrue. I’m always a little anxious about people who write about someone who is in a minority when the writer him or herself is not. Like blue-eyed blondes writing about Native American spirituality, or inner city black kids. I’ve even read books by men where the main character, a woman, had experiences with pregnancy and birth that didn’t ring true. [...] I just didn’t want to get it wrong!”

While a writer who isn’t blind surely can’t ever completely comprehend what day-to-day life is like for blind people (Cheyenne bristles a little when Griffin tries eating with his eyes closed as if that accurately shows him Cheyenne’s experience), I really appreciate that April wanted to make sure to write a character so different from herself as correctly as possible. The acknowledgements at the back of the book and a conversation she described to me in that email indicate a real commitment to proper research. Yeah, April!

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Tags: april henry, reviews, ya lit