Pamela

This book was a wonderfully-written exploration into the respective minds of a crime victim on the one hand, and her kidnapper on the other. Lippman opened up my awareness of the various influences that lead a person ultimately to death row. While I could not exactly identify with the protagonist's motivation to pursue the continuing relationship with her kidnapper, I was able to suspend disbelief and enjoyed the depth and nuanced characterization of the book. Characters were well-drawn and definitely not stereotypes.

This book was not as advertised. I expected more explorations of the PTSD phenomenon and how it affected the protagonist's present life, rather than a long story of a knock-down, drag-out garden variety kidnapping, complete with archetypical male misogynist behavior. Way too much profanity - I don't mind the f-word now and then, when it's appropriate, but when every other word is an f-word or other hostile profanity, used as an adjective by the main character in her therapy sessions, it's way too much. The character's cookie-cutter variety of hostility against therapy and therapists was also very generic and tiresome.

Added in was the narrator's flat delivery and speed reading. She sounded as though someone was forcing her to read the words and she was just going through the motions. Disappointing, this novel could have been so much more.

Will you please stop featuring such appealing novels only available in abridged format? I am continually stumped as to why oh why anyone with a brain would even bother to read an abridged novel. Several times I have found on your site what promised to be a good read, but only available in the abridged version, and I have gone to the competition and rented the unabridged cassettes. Please stop the insanity!