A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard

Dugard, Jaycee Lee. A Stolen Life: A Memoir. New York: Simon Schuster, 2011. Print.

Jaycee Lee Dugard was a normal eleven year old kid in 1991. A freckled, blonde haired girl. She was in love with her new baby sister along with her mother. When Jaycee wasn’t with her family, she enjoyed spending time with her closest friend Shawnee. She was even going to work on a dude ranch with her that summer. Life was ordinary until things took a turn for the worse that year on June 10th. “I was just like you,” she says, “until the day my life was stolen.”
That line may not relate to lots of readers; to Jaycee that was the definition of what her late childhood was. During that early June morning, her existence disappeared like smoke into air. A stranger named Phillip Garrido was her abductor. Not only was he her abductor, but her personal hell. Her name came into the spotlight in 2009 when she finally took her name back, 18 years later after that June morning. Dugard doesn’t look at herself as a victim. She sees herself as a survivor. She is a survivor, and a strong one at that.
Jaycee was the wild animal to Phillips zoo. Hidden in the “secret backyard” she went back and forth between the “studio” and “next door.” The studio was where she spent time early on and where he took her when she was first taken. The next door was a different place. That’s where Phillip took Jaycee when he needed to take care of his problem, where the “runs” took place. The funny thing is, is that Phillip was on peroal all this time. That secret backyard with only a camouflaged gate to keep it hidden from the surrounding neighbors wasn’t ever looked upon by his parole officers. For a whole 18 years it was overlooked; no one noticed.
To say what happened to Jaycee was a horrible incident, doesn’t even begin to cover what unspeakable things she had to live through. Now the question floating around in everyone's head is, what would make her want to re-live those memories by writing them all down? Miss. Dugard wants to turn the light over onto Phillip. He believes he is not responsible for his actions: kidnapping, sexual assault. He blames it on the angels (the voices in his head). She writes, “I believe that everyone should know exactly what he and his wife Nancy were doing all these years in their backyard,” she also explains she shouldn’t be ashamed, “I want Phillip Garrido to know that I no longer have to keep his secret. And that he is most certainly responsible for stealing my life.” Not only does she want justice but would like to spread the hopes that it will be of help to someone facing a difficult situation of their own-whatever that may be. Her goal is to inspire people to speak out when they see that something is not right around them.
This memoir is a heart wrenching story, yet many readers won’t be able to put it down. They won’t believe what their eyes are reading! From a sweet young girl, to a victim, a sex slave, a mother, a survivor. A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard will have a change on the view of life.