My Story

My Story Review

by Grace C

My Story is a memoir by Elizabeth Smart that takes you through her time while being kidnapped. Throughout the book, she explains the many obstacles she has to overcome and how certain aspects in her life influenced her to power through. From the very beginning of the book Elizabeth explains her many emotions as she goes from a girl who lives in a good home with a caring and loving family, to a malnourished and lonely prisoner among her two kidnappers. She has many recurring moments of hope as she is taken through the long nine months of her kidnapping and these moments of hope are how she remains strong through it all.

Throughout the story, Elizabeth is overcome by many obstacles and is forced through some unimaginable situations. What her captors put her through is unbearable. It really makes you think about what you would do if you were in her place. I was very surprised by how many times she wasn’t discovered being hidden by her captors. There were so many times when I just wanted her to be saved because she was so close to freedom and she had been through so much. The book really makes you feel emotional for Elizabeth because the experiences she had are happening to not just children but people everywhere every day and it's terrifying. I think after reading her book it has made me more aware of what is going on around the world and that although we may think we live somewhere safe there is always a good chance we don’t.

Although her experiences in the beginning and middle of the book were scary, towards the end I was surprised by how Elizabeth was able to remain sane while living with her captors. It seemed that as the story progressed the characters true selves were unveiled and that her captors were really just psychotic. If I were her, I would be terrified by the way her kidnappers were acting. She was very brave and her story greatly explains that.  

I would recommend this book to everyone because it helps bring the reader awareness to what is happening in the world today and it may help them find their own hope in their life in a time of hardship.