Jaycee Dugard was abducted at 11 years old. She lived with her abductors, a pedophile and his wife, for 18 years, but she wasn’t held captive all that time. That’s the problem with her story. She was a victim in June of 1991 when Phillip Garrido zapped her with his stun gun, put her in his car, imprisoned her in his home and started using her as his personal sex slave, but by the time Jaycee, now living under the secret identity of Allissa; a 29-year-old mother of two; was discovered by the police and reunited with her real family, she’d become willing participant. That she attributes to being “conditioned” as she tries to play the victim role to the end, but she’s full of shit. She had countless chances to flee; at one point, she strolls thru a crowded shopping mall without Phillip; but chose not to.

Her story is nonetheless an intriguing one. Her style of writing is sometimes childish and redundant, especially at the beginning, but the personal journals she was thoughtful enough to write over the years, which she apparently saved, help her do a fine job of revisiting the past. That is assuming all the details she includes; the rape scenes, which are the most interesting parts, are surprisingly graphic; are true. This is just one side of a long story. My only major complaints are the Reflection bits, which take the reader from a factual account of the past to a present-day psychological analysis in a jolt, and the fact that it should’ve ended at the Discovery And Reunion chapter; the ending of which is genuinely poignant. The rest could’ve and should’ve been summed down to a short epilogue.

my rating : 3 of 5

2011