A Stolen Life

A Memoir

By: Jaycee Dugard

Narrated by: Jaycee Dugard

Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

"In the summer of 1991 I was a normal kid. I did normal things. I had friends and a mother who loved me. I was just like you. Until the day my life was stolen. For eighteen years I was a prisoner. I was an object for someone to use and abuse. For eighteen years I was not allowed to speak my own name. I became a mother and was forced to be a sister. For eighteen years I survived an impossible situation. On August 26, 2009, I took my name back. My name is Jaycee Lee Dugard. I dont think of myself as a victim. I survived. A Stolen Life is my story in my own words, in my own way, exactly as I remember it."

©2011 Jaycee Dugard (P)2011 Simon & Schuster Audio

no words

I love this book . It's hard to describe this book just amazing what a young woman had to go thru at the hand of a mad man. How brave she is .amazing amazing book.

Great!

I loved that this book was read by Jaycee. I am so sorry she had to endure all that, but hopefully this book made her stronger. What a amazing woman!

Truly inspirational!

I started this book just being nosey honestly. wondering what she had went through for all those years. It is such a sad story but it turned out to be so inspirational! Jaycee telling her own story of survival and growth is intriguing. Despite her captivity and being robbed of her childhood, teen, and early adult years, she has transformed into such a smart and philosophical young woman. She seems to be more aware and enlightened than many adults that have had lavish upbringings with expensive educations and diverse experiences. And then to hear how not only has she survived and transformed into a beautiful, intellectual woman but has decided to use her experience to help others is truly amazing! Her story helps me put life in perspective! If she can survive what she did and then grow and transform and make good come from it, than we all can get through our bumps in life and learn and grow from them! Jaycee is such an inspiration for all of us! If there were more people in the world like her, the world would definitely be a better place! You are AMAZING Jaycee! Thank you so much for your strength and courage to share your story! We as a world and culture NEED stories like yours to help remind us what's important in life and help motivate us to be better people like you! So thank you Jaycee! ❤

Not as Hard to Listen to as I Feared, Hard to stop

I actually had this audiobook for ages before I listened to it. I was one of the many people totally fascinated by Jaycee's story in the news. I just wasn't sure I could actually handle listening to the abuse that she had suffered. My main area of interest was in what happened when she returned to her family though and this seemed to be the only source for that info. I finally listened to it and I have to say that it wasn't as hard to hear as I thought. I hate rape scenes, even in fiction, and dreaded that in this book. Jaycee manages to communicate the facts of her abuse without dwelling on the suffering and she explains the pattern of abuse in detail basically just once. The reader understands what happened without having to keep reliving it. I thought it was very well done. Some reviewers are critical of Jaycee's narration. I rather liked it. She sounds very young which works well when discussing her early days. There is also a flat, reading quality to what she is saying that makes it less emotionally charged and easier to listen too. I really think this was preferable to some narrator dramatizing the material. What happened was drama enough. As with anything that makes headlines, you tend to think that you already know a lot of the story. I confess to being surprised at how Jaycee came to tell the officers who she was. I had the impression from the news that once she was alone with officers she seized the day to reclaim her identity. Actually, they really had to pull it out of her. She does go into a lot of detail on her therapy after the reunion wit her mom. I would have really liked to hear what her mom was thinking at certain points but I guess that is a different book. I found the book a quick and compelling read that is hard to assign a starred value to.

difficult and amazing - thank you, Jaycee

Any additional comments?

Some of the detail is hard to listen to - but for me it actually helped to know the truth of Jaycee's experience. And even with the difficult parts, I know there is even more that Jaycee could tell.

For all the horror, I found this book an refreshing, inspiring testament to the strength and goodness of the human spirit. Jaycee could have become as hateful as the people she lived with from age 11 to 30 -- but instead, she became the opposite. Her innate warmth and love survived along with her.

Having Jaycee herself tell her story - even though it is clearly very difficult for her at times - is part of her story. I found her voice to be both listenable and also a part of the story of how she survived and emerged from the long ordeal.

I wish Jaycee, her daughters and family, long and happy lives! Thank you, Jaycee, for helping others better understand.

Disturbing Story but I couldn't put it down.

Any additional comments?

As all true to life stories where someone is abused this one is hard to understand. What really stands out is the courage and desire of Jaycee to survive. She is an amazing woman despite the terror and abuse she suffered she nonetheless has a positive outlook on life. I wish her well and healing.

Courage

If you could sum up A Stolen Life in three words, what would they be?

Courage, strength, hope

What does Jaycee Dugard bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

To hear her story in her voice was an honor. I can't believe she had the strength and courage to do so, I kept thinking to myself I wonder how many tries it took her to read some of the parts she wrote. I am glad she did read it as I am sure it was theraputic to do so & it allowed her to control how it was read. From what Jaycee described during those 18 years being able to control what haapens in her life & the lives of her daughters is very important. Jaycee is a remarkable female and mother.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

Won't win any awards for narration

I very much looked forward to getting this book and listened to it in two sittings. I think it's certainly worth getting, but the listener needs to be aware that Jaycee is not a professional narrator and probably never will be. If we keep in mind that this woman was kidnapped and hidden away when she was in the 5th grade and held for 18 years, the writing and narration is actually pretty good. I really don't know how she got through not only writing this book, but then recording it. I hope it was a therapeutic experience rather than an experience of torture reliving all of these memories. I especially liked that toward the end of the book, she includes a bunch of entries from a journal she started while living in the backyard. In those entries, you get to hear her voice while inside the situation rather than as a past experience. I'm impressed with Jaycee's resiliency and ability to move on and look to make each coming day a good one. I find myself completely baffled as to why we even have a parole system at all. Clearly no one was keeping an eye on this guy whatsoever. How many other Jaycee's are out there just waiting to be found?

Rating is not easy for true story

I have difficulty in puting the rating. If I were to think of this work as a novel or a piece of art work then I would probably find it easier to rate. Those who are seeking for any element of literature or art will not find much in here. I also find the reader's voice hard for me to follow. Some time, it felt like the story loses cohenrence.
However, I could not stop. There is some compelling thing I can't name made me going through. What ever this woman was telling was true. Despite knowing that it's true, and even feeling that it's true, it's still almost impossible to envision the suffering, the cruelty that this person went through.
I could not help but cried, many times.
Reading this book I realised every human being suffers, yet, there is no limit to the number of ways of suffering as well as the pain it brings. If one cares about the goodness of human being and wants to seek the meaning of life then perhaps this shall be a worthy reading.

A truly sad story of rescue, but just not a good book

My heart goes out to the tragedy that happened to Jaycee, but that does not mean this was a good audiobook. This is a sad and true story of evil and one woman's overcoming of it, and that gives this brave storyteller merit. However, the story and narration just isn't very good.