Girl, Stolen by April Henry

Sixteen year-old Cheyenne Wilder is sleeping in the back of a car while her mom fills her prescription at the pharmacy. Before Cheyenne realizes what's happening, their car is being stolen—with her inside! Griffin hadn’t meant to kidnap Cheyenne, all he needed to do was steal a car for the others. But once Griffin's dad finds out that Cheyenne’s father is the president of a powerful corporation, everything changes—now there’s a reason to keep her. What Griffin doesn’t know is that Cheyenne is not only sick with pneumonia, she is blind. How will Cheyenne survive this nightmare, and if she does, at what price?

A blind girl overlooked in the car while it's being stolen? What an awesome premise. I eagerly sat down with this book, and I like how much we learn about blindness in this story. I also liked Cheyenne as a character.

I really liked that there was no trust between Griffin and Cheyenne, on either side. It made sense considering the situation, so that was well done. I thought it was great how Cheyenne took her rescue into her own hands even though we know Griffin's plans. Things did get a bit too over the top toward the end, though.

I think the execution of this story could have been better. The relationship between Cheyenne and Griffin was a bit predictable, and much of the information revealed felt contrived (like the details of Roy's chop shop). I didn't buy it that Griffin would spill so much info after making such a huge mistake stealing the car with Cheyenne in it. He's a smart kid and would know not to make the situation worse by giving her too much info.

I wasn't fond of how some of the blindness info was conveyed. It often interfered with the story and slowed down the pacing. And some of it had too much of an us/them quality. Such as, 'all sighted people do/don't do certain things,' and 'all blind people do/don't do other things.' It's not fair to either party to create such absolutes. It's true that many sighted people ignore their other senses because they can rely on sight, but not everyone. And it's true that many blind people can do something unnoticed by sighted people, but not all. The generalizations were a bit insulting (to both sighted and unsighted people).

I really like the direction the story took, and the resolution with the characters was good. Though I do feel that the very last line was a bit of a cop out...I would have preferred something more. Not necessarily a concrete answer, but more of her line of thinking. Still, I think this is an enjoyable book worth reading.

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