Name: Amy Chelsea Stacie Dee
Rating: 4.388888888888889 (9 reviews)
ISBN: 9781101996829

Mary G. Thompson

A bittersweet homecoming holds dark secrets in this heart-wrenching story of loss, love, and survival for readers of Room When sixteen-year-old Amy returns home, she can't tell her family what’s happened to her. She can’t tell them where she’s been since she and her best friend, her cousin Dee, were kidnapped six years ago—who stole them from their families or what’s become of Dee. She has to stay silent because she's afraid of what might happen next, and she’s desperate to protect her secrets at any cost. Amy tries to readjust to life at “home,” but nothing she does feels right. She’s a stranger in her own family, and the guilt that she’s the one who returned is insurmountable. Amy soon realizes that keeping secrets won’t change what's happened, and they may end up hurting those she loves the most. She has to go back in order to move forward, risking everything along the way. Amy Chelsea Stacie Dee is a riveting, affecting story of loss and hope.

Amy Chelsea Stacie Dee

I had been wanting to read this book for a while and finally I picked it up

I’ve read my fair share of kidnapping books but never something like this. It was creepy at times, strange and despite it all, comforting

I loved the writing style, the monologues, the red line throughout the book, the plot and the characters. It was all done really well and in a unique and hauntingly real way

It’s not often that I read books where we’re in a child’s pov, but the few times where I have, it’s often felt comforting, like seeing my past self and seeing the world through her eyes.

There was something about Amy that resonated with me. It felt sorta familiar while also being strange and new. The way her mind worked, how much she lived in her head, even before the kidnapping. That’s something I’ve always done, just living there. The guilt she felt for what had happened to Dee and all the thoughts she had about what she was supposed to do and not. It was sad yet very real. 

I love the way the author takes us completely into her mind and it becomes so real it almost feels like it is. 

All the thoughts, feelings, quotes and reflections that Amy has, are truly thoughtprovoking and kinda reminds me of what’s it’s like to be inside my own mind.

Amy went through hell and still survived. She learned how to be a mother, how to survive, how to exist, how to be strong because she had to. Because the alternative would be to die

The strong attachment and bond she has to her children Barbara and Dolores were also something I’ve never seen or read about before. As someone who’s not the biggest fan of kids, reading about the way Amy sees them as her whole world and how far she would go to protect them, was something very new to me. She was only sixteen and yet she saw them as her kids, she had to be a mother, she never wanted to but she was. 

Dee was a character we never got to see in the same way we saw Amy. So I can’t say I know her but the change that followed after the kidnapping, the psychological way she slowly died was tragic and very realistic. The before when she was a girl who laughed, were full of life and always found chatting near the lake and the after when she was kidnapped and raped, forced to have kids when she was still a kid herself.  It changed her, of course it did. She wasn’t cruel or mean for expressing that pain, she was only a child tired of being a mother, tired of losing her life.

Kyle’s character were eerie, strange and different than what I have seen in other books. He reminded me of a child inside a man’s body. He truly believed he loved Dee and that he had a rght to own her, Amy, Barbara and Dolores. It was twisted and yet I don’t think he believed or saw that what he was doing was not normal. This doesn’t justify his actions but it does make me question how a person can be so far away from the real world that they make up people.

There were also things I related to and things I learned throughout this book. Some of it was how much you want to help someone and then instead of doing that you end up pushing them away. The way Lee tried to save Amy from going back but instead made things worse wirhout meaning to. It’s something I myself have done in the past but I also have experienced that it’s about communication too. The way Amy and Lee communicated and they understood each other’s sides. I also know humans are complex and there’s always reasons to why we do what we do. That’s another reason why I love reading, seeing all the different sides humans have and get in touch with my own humanity.

This book was unique and different from most of the books I’ve read. Overall I’m very happy I picked it up. 

Lulu Evensen

I had been wanting to read this book for a while and finally I picked it up

I’ve read my fair share of kidnapping books but never something like this. It was creepy at times, strange and despite it all, comforting

I loved the writing style, the monologues, the red line throughout the book, the plot and the characters. It was all done really well and in a unique and hauntingly real way

It’s not often that I read books where we’re in a child’s pov, but the few times where I have, it’s often felt comforting, like seeing my past self and seeing the world through her eyes.

There was something about Amy that resonated with me. It felt sorta familiar while also being strange and new. The way her mind worked, how much she lived in her head, even before the kidnapping. That’s something I’ve always done, just living there. The guilt she felt for what had happened to Dee and all the thoughts she had about what she was supposed to do and not. It was sad yet very real. 

I love the way the author takes us completely into her mind and it becomes so real it almost feels like it is. 

All the thoughts, feelings, quotes and reflections that Amy has, are truly thoughtprovoking and kinda reminds me of what’s it’s like to be inside my own mind.

Amy went through hell and still survived. She learned how to be a mother, how to survive, how to exist, how to be strong because she had to. Because the alternative would be to die

The strong attachment and bond she has to her children Barbara and Dolores were also something I’ve never seen or read about before. As someone who’s not the biggest fan of kids, reading about the way Amy sees them as her whole world and how far she would go to protect them, was something very new to me. She was only sixteen and yet she saw them as her kids, she had to be a mother, she never wanted to but she was. 

Dee was a character we never got to see in the same way we saw Amy. So I can’t say I know her but the change that followed after the kidnapping, the psychological way she slowly died was tragic and very realistic. The before when she was a girl who laughed, were full of life and always found chatting near the lake and the after when she was kidnapped and raped, forced to have kids when she was still a kid herself.  It changed her, of course it did. She wasn’t cruel or mean for expressing that pain, she was only a child tired of being a mother, tired of losing her life.

Kyle’s character were eerie, strange and different than what I have seen in other books. He reminded me of a child inside a man’s body. He truly believed he loved Dee and that he had a rght to own her, Amy, Barbara and Dolores. It was twisted and yet I don’t think he believed or saw that what he was doing was not normal. This doesn’t justify his actions but it does make me question how a person can be so far away from the real world that they make up people.

There were also things I related to and things I learned throughout this book. Some of it was how much you want to help someone and then instead of doing that you end up pushing them away. The way Lee tried to save Amy from going back but instead made things worse wirhout meaning to. It’s something I myself have done in the past but I also have experienced that it’s about communication too. The way Amy and Lee communicated and they understood each other’s sides. I also know humans are complex and there’s always reasons to why we do what we do. That’s another reason why I love reading, seeing all the different sides humans have and get in touch with my own humanity.

This book was unique and different from most of the books I’ve read. Overall I’m very happy I picked it up. 

Zoe Smolen

A great thriller for October! While I found myself slightly frustrated with Amy at times, I could understand her mindset and why she did the thins she did. Even if some of those things were bad decisions. I thought the book did a great job at showing the nuances that one would feel in the situation. 

Thanks to Penguin for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

A bittersweet homecoming holds dark secrets for a 16-year-old girl when she returns to her family six years after she and her best friend were kidnapped in this heart-wrenching story of loss, love, and survival.

Casie Blevins

What a great novel. The pacing was perfect, the plot was compelling. I couldn't put it down. I will definitely read her next novel.

Cousins Amy and Dee were kidnapped by a stranger as children. Now, sixteen-year-old Amy is back with her parents. Dressed in purple and clutching a plastic doll, she refuses to answer questions. As Amy struggles towards a normal teenage life, her family - and the police - press her for information. Unable to escape her past, Amy realizes she has to confront the truth. How did she survive? How did she escape? And what happened to Dee?

Amy Chelsea Stacie Dee

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