A Stolen Life: A Memoir

A lot of negative reviews from people saying this book is poorly written are shamefully missing the entire notion that Jaycee was only educated until a 5th grade level, so not even out of Elementary School yet. Plus, there was no way between her escape and the time she wrote this book to really become a fully functioning 29+ year old adult and become a best selling author. You can’t be picky and dramatic about her lack of ability to write at an “adult” level like one else would.

Also, other people are claiming this book is boring. She was held in captivity for 18 years and used as nothing more than a rag doll for the first few for a sick man’s needs; also at the hands of his sick wife.

Her days in that backyard were repetitive and depressing and she barely got to leave the house in all of those years. You can expect a pretty harrowing tale, but if you’re “bored” easily because it’s not filled with excitement or bursting with detail about the few outings she had, this book isn’t for you.

I liked the book. Is it one of my absolute favorites? No. But I appreciate it. I appreciate Jaycee’s bravery in recanting her story for people like us to see. It’s raw, just as I’d expected. I saw that emotion on her 20/20 interview and when she mentioned this book I ordered it and I don’t regret it.

I AM TOTALLY SICKENED BY THE PEOPLE THAT COULD GIVE THIS BOOK 1 STAR AND CRITICIZE HER ABOUT IT BEING WRITTEN POORLY! SICKENED !!!! THIS WAS A BOOK THAT SHE NEEDED TO WRITE TO TELL HER STORY , EXACTLY AS HAPPENED, EXACTLY AS SHE THOUGHT. SHE WAS 11 YEARS OLD WHEN SHE WAS KIDNAPPED. WTF PEOPLE , SHE LOST HER EDUCATION AND SADLY WAS BEING BRAIN WASHED. DID THOSE IGNORANT PEOPLE FORGET WHAT ITS LIKE BEING A CHILD AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BRAIN???? COME ON. THIS BOOK IS INDEED AWFUL TO READ THE CONTEXT, NO DOUBT ABOUT THAT, BUT WHY THE CRITICIZERS ??? ANYWAY- I FOUND THIS BOOK TO BE A WONDERFUL, THERAPEUTIC BOOK NOT FOR ME, BUT FOR JAYCEE DUGARD'S SAKE. IM VERY HAPPY SHE IS IN HER REAL HOME NOW. IM GLAD THOSE PEOPLE THAT TOOK HER ARE GETTING WHAT THEY DESERVE NOW. REMEMBER, THIS IS A MEMOIR, REAL THOUGHTS, REAL THINGS IN ONES LIFE.... THESE KINDS OF BOOKS ARE NOT MEANT TO BE SOME BOOK GOING INTO A DAMN PROFESSIONAL WRITING CONTEST- BACK OFF PEOPLE- IM VERY HAPPY JAYCEE IS FREE NOW AND HAD THE COURAGE TO SHARE HER STORY. THANKS JAYCEE

Please understand how hard it is for me to give this book such a low rating and that I am not judging what Jaycee went through in anyway nor am I judging her. What Jaycee went through was heartbreaking and horrible and I am so glad that she is now safe with friends and family. She is a truly amazing woman.
The low review comes from the really badly written book. It jumps around, is distracting and to be really honest here you can get all the really important parts in her TV interview about the book. That may sound harsh and I don't mean to come off that way, I do understand why she wrote the book and that is a very noble reason to write a book about her story but it does not change the fact that the book is really badly written.
I wish you the best Jaycee and hope that one day you do become a famous writer like you wanted to in your book.

I have read at least half of the reviews for this memoir, and I see a pattern. Those who loved it champion Jaycee's triumph of spirit and courage, which was well deserved. Those who criticized the writing got shot down by those mistaking their reviews for a criticism of the writer. Again and again, their responses to a writing critique scream SHE WAS ELEVEN.

But Jaycee herself had the awareness and the wherewithal to say in her disclaimer that if readers want a less confusing (more coherent) work, they should come back to her in ten years when she will have sorted it all out. I believe she should have waited the ten years.

Her therapist suggested she use writing as therapy, which for trauma survivors is very, very helpful. What she presented as memoir, I believe, was a therapeutic work that, if she had nurtured her writing skills and gotten the perspective of time, could have been turned into a truly eloquent, deep, and moving memoir.

On her list of things she wanted to do, one was to write a best seller. Doubtless she was approached about creating a book. I find it shameful that Simon and Shuster allowed her book to be published unedited, because I believe it was a marketing ploy. I get that people defend the work as written in her own words, but editing it would have retained her own words, just eliminated the errors and made it more readable.

There's no doubt that this woman has survived an incredible ordeal and her story has great potential. However, the writing style is very clumsy and the editor seems to be missing in action....Such a pity! The one advantage of the awkward grammar is that it seems to represent the perspective of an eleven year-old girl trapped inside a twenty nine year-old woman, but this style gets old very quickly and it felt like a chore to read most of this book.

Where there is a part in that describes(with much terrible detail) some of the things this monster did to Jaycee, the book is a mostly flat. It reads a bit like a young girl wrote it and there is a lot of redundant information. What she went through is beyond horrible and I am glad she was able to get her life together and thrive.

The first 100 pages of this book are gut wrenching. The fact that she tells the story in first person, present tense, makes it even more so. I had a difficult time sleeping for several nights. What that man did to her was terrible. I'm glad he's never going to get out of prison. I hope he has lots of new boyfriends in prison and that his fellow prisoners torture him for the rest of his days. He deserves it.

For a woman with a 5th grade education, Jaycee did a fantastic job writing this book. It's an amazing story.

I wish Jaycee well in the rest of her life.

For such a shocking and horrific experience, it turned out to be a really boring story. She spends more time talking about cats, hermit crabs, and horses than her captivity. The book is choppy, flat, and doesn’t seem to have any action or life to it. I both own the hardback copy, and listened as an audiobook, and was able to fast forward through big sections of the story and lose nothing. While I don’t expect Jaycee to be an expert in all the ways she was let down by law enforcement, that was mostly glossed over. She will touch on what could be important or interesting experiences, and take them in a completely different direction. She will focus on trivial facts or details of the situation instead of the actual story you are waiting to hear. If you want to learn about Jaycee’s ordeal, I would recommend her TV special or some podcast episodes over reading her book.

Jaycee is one of the most courageous people! My thoughts and prayers are with her and her family, as they continue through life.
An incredible book!

This is an important story, with important issues. I applaud Jaycee for sharing her experiences, as it is a gift. I hope that it helped her, and if she wishes to write a follow-up, I'd be interested in reading that too. To me, her young-ish writing style is an asset towards helping others understand what it's like to have your life interrupted in such a brutal and confusing way. What a tribute to the human spirit she is.