Skip to main content

Tough Love

"I promise I won't hurt you, " you said.

"How do I know you're not lying?"

"You'll have to trust me, I guess. You're with me now, so you kind of have to."



Sounds vaguely familiar, like I've heard it before in real life. haha.

You know what people say about niat tak menghalalkan cara? It rings true in Lucy Christopher's Stolen: A Letter To My Captor. The ending proved it! No, I'm not going to spoil it for you.

First of all, it was weird, dry like the desert and tiring. It seemed endless, yet all the same, the permise was interesting. I know, I just finished reading a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast with a modern twist, this book, makes the other book very romanticized. This is more of a real deal, if people actually went for the Beauty and the Beast formula. Hold someone captive to make the person learn to love you.

Yeah, and I used to believe that you can't force someone to love you, but what if it was done under the right circumstances? Would you have succeeded?

Just imagine to be kidnapped and to be spirited away thousands of kilometers from your home, into uncharted territory, far away from anything you were used to, from any human contact to the outside world. Like you've been blasted off to space to Mars, without a way back home. No podcasts, no phones, no Facebooks, no IMs. Yeah, I think you get my meaning.

Worse still, worse than being totally alone is that you're stuck with the person you hate the most, the person who brought you there, the person who could potentially kill you, or leave you for dead in the most undignified manner. What makes it more complicated is that the so-called kidnapper expects your tender loving company in return.

He says he wouldn't hurt you. First thought, lies. A trap to draw you in to your end. Yet, he indeed didn't hurt you.

You actually believed in him, until after you're rescued, people want to convince you that the way you feel was all part of Stockholm Syndrome. Confused much?

All the thoughts and emotions and dilemmas were effectively described. There were lots of descriptions, and the writing was more adult. Expect four-letter words, but no sex. Which was weird. Under normal circumstances, if I were a run-of-the-mill modern-day psycho abducter, I would have already did what I wanted to do right there and then. It was perfect! Completely out of nowhere, even if I killed my victim, who would ever think of looking for a body in the middle of nowhere? It's like fiding a certain grain of sand miles away from where you actually came. Who would actually think of looking for you there? No one can here you scream and come for you. It's like you've disappeared from the face of the Earth.

Again it's the abstinence thing. I love you so much, just to prove it to you, I won't rape you. Would it have happened in reality? Especially if you spent months and months in the middle of the desert and there's only one female company there..okay, enough of that. I think you get it.

At first, it seemed farfetched, because of its large scale of execution. The years it took of stalking, and setting the place up, the planning, the logistics. It made the kidnapper seemed really mad, obsessed, but as the book progresses, it made you feel sorry for him. It gave him a really softer side, and you started feeling guilty that you were the one who had murderous thoughts of him.

It was okay, I guess. I like the escape attempts parts. You're so desperate to get away, yet, you know, it's hopeless. I can't imagine being in such extreme conditions like that. It took a lot of guts and will to survive. I was also amazed (okay, 'amazed' is too much, I think. I couldn't think of another word) by the elaborate planning to get the kidnapping show on the road.

One thing still remained a pet peeve for me, the cheesiness of looking at stars and talking about them and snuggling up close.yuck.

The climax was okay. Nice build up and nice ending.
The book was also written without chapters, another reason why it felt long and endless. It was also written like a letter. A second-person point of view, is that what it's called?  haven't being paying attention in Literature.

It reminded me that I did write one essay as such, and yes, it's still with my teacher. It was something about the last day of school and I got in a fight with a certain 'you', and I was reminicscing about the times we had together.

There were two more essays. One was for my Trial Exam. I wrote about the assassination of a president and a panic room, based on my nightmare. Another one was for the open-ended essay entitled 'She'. It was about a world without women, and there's this scientist trying to bring women back to life, only to find that his creation was seeking out reveng on men. I emphasised on how less human they became when they went against the laws of nature. Yeah, I guess, I was dead sexist when I wrote it too. All of these essays, which I was sort of proud of, are with my teacher, I hope she still has them.


The harshness of the outback described in the book, reminded me a lot about The Drover's Wife story. How lonely and helpless it felt. Now they changed the syllabus, so probably, the kids learn about something else.

And no, my romantic fantasies does not include being kidnapped by a hot-looking guy to live with him in a desert or stranded on an island with him (who goes Crocodile Hunter at a sight of a snake) , far away from everybody else so you can have him all to yourself, and have him to protect you.

This is my second some-what romantic book in a row. No, I will not go for any true-blue romantic books (with the sex and swooning)  like Nora Roberts or Sidney Sheldon, or Cecilia Ahern. Nope. No more Chick Lits or romance for me. Definitely none of those Malay romance novels with the cardboard cutout characters who fall for the guy who happens to be a anak datuk, with the syarikat of yaddyadda Holdings. It's so unreal. I did read a few when I was in boarding school, because people had a lot of it, and there was nothing else to read, especially during the H1N1 quarantine during my Trials last year. Thank God Syakir buys English books, so I borrowed his occasionally. Sadly, I have not heard from him recently.
That's it for now. Still waiting for Percy Jackson and Pi, and of course JPA.

Okay.Out.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Spider-man

Firstly, I should make my biases clear, but I'm pretty sure it's obvious. I've seen the Sam Raimi trilogy and of course, I will be comparing it to the reboot. After all, the reboot came a little bit too soon after the trilogy. Most of what follows will probably just be my personal preferences and gripes. Warning, spoilers abound. 1. Peter Parker I liked the doe-eyed Tobey Maguire more as the day-to-day Peter Parker. He's the nerdy, unsure of himself, normal guy. Andrew Garfield's cheeky boyish look doesn't make me buy the Peter Parker-ness. Andrew Garfield looks like he belongs to some teen series. 2. Mary Jane versus Gwen Stacy I hated Kirsten Dunst's Mary Jane. She's completely helpless like the traditional damsel in distress and sometimes her whining about her relationship with Peter Parker, seems, idk, petty, and sometimes she seems to not understand his predicament of being Spider-man and not being able to be there for her all th

Memori Keropok Lekor

Setiap kali ada school trip ke SBP pantai timur di Pahang atau Terengganu (seingatnya, pernah mengunjungi SESTER-Perfect Score Zon Timur 2009, SBPI B. Rakit-HKSBP Zon timur 2008 kot? SHAH Pekan- HKSBP Zon Timur 2006, SESMA-bermalam untuk Sambutan Hari Guru Kebangsaan. Eh, who knows where the headgirl of SESMA 2009 is right now? and....tu setakat yang ingatlah tentang sekolah yang dikunjungi), kalau berkesempatan lalu Batu Buruk, mesti singgah beli keropok lekor. Best gila. Sekali beli mesti habis dalam RM 50, sebab beli untuk cikgu, untuk kelas, untuk ahli dorm. Sesampainya di kelas, keropok lekor akan dibahagikan untuk bahagian budak-budak (budak-budak?) laki and budak-budak perempuan. Di bahagian depan kelas, budak-budak laki dalam sekelip mata sahaja menghabiskan keropok. Budak-budak perempuan pula makan di meja belakang (selalunya meja akulah tu. Nampak sangat muka kuat "jjella", huhu). Kita makan 'cover-cover', konon ayulah kot. And then, berduyun-duyun pergi

okayy..berlambak post bulan ni

I've started packing for college! I have one big bag of clothes. Itu pun ada lagi yang belum cukup. I took out some. Well, I didn't know what to bring, I just put everything I felt like wearing, shortsleeved shirts, long-sleeved t-shirts, blouses, jeans, slacks, tracksuits, I even brought two pairs of my nenek's kurung, because I haven't worn them yet. My tudungs of various colors, brooches. Hangars and clothes pegs. washing stuff, I'm missing a berus and baldi . and cadar . Toiletries. Another smaller bag of stationary, my mum's General Chemistry (God, I hate the typewriter font) and Calculus books (which of course, I tried reading, but I don't really get it), TOEFL textbook, just in case I decide to take it on my own, see how it goes with this ICPU thing first. I also brought my Form 5 Physics and Chemistry notes. I have yet to buy log books which  plan to use during lectures, they're a lot easier to manage compared to lose sheets of paper. you k