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Book review: “Stained” by Cheryl Rainfield

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Cheryl Rainfield's semi-autobiographic novel studiesa  young woman with grit and determination.

Cheryl Rainfield’s semi-autobiographic novel studiesa young woman with grit and determination.

Cheryl Rainfield‘s taut YA thriller “Stained” is the relentless, gripping story of a painfully self-conscious teenager who’s kidnapped by an acquaintance.

Until Sarah is abducted, she can think of little beyond the port wine birthmark that covers part of her face. She dreams of a surgery that will remove it, even temporarily.

And then she’s grabbed by someone who pretends to be rescuing her from bullying classmates, and abruptly the birthmark is the least of her worries. Her captor drugs her, padlocks on a mask that covers most of her face, and dumps her in a remote one-room shack.

“Stained” is a story that could have been inspired by recent headlines, and in fact it is rooted in author Rainfield’s own experience as a hostage who was raped and deprived of food and water. Her account of Sarah’s imprisonment is terrifyingly detailed, because Rainfield drew on vivid memories of her own experience. (It’s a wake-up call for anyone who secretly feels too smart or strong to be vulnerable to be a victim: Really? And with no tools, and no sight, exactly how would you engineer an escape?)

In “Stained,” Sarah manages to stay strong even as she realizes that weeks and months have passed since her abduction. Her internal discipline is Olympian. “Stained” is not an easy book to read, but it is eye-opening, and nearly anyone who reads it will have a new understanding of what captivity might have been like for real hostages and kidnapping victims.

“Stained” by Cheryl Rainfield (Harcourt, $16.99) Ages 12 and up.

The post Book review: “Stained” by Cheryl Rainfield appeared first on Pages.


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