3,096 Days, by Natascha Kampusch

Book 3 of "Read your own books month"

A sad 3 Stars

ABOUT THE BOOK - On March 2, 1998, ten-year-old Natascha Kampusch was kidnapped, and found herself locked in a house that would be her home for the next eight years. She was starved, beaten, treated as a slave, and forced to work for her deranged captor. But she never forgot who she was-and she never gave up hope of returning to the world. This is her story. 

MY REVIEW - UUUGGGHHHHH I just really did not care for this book. I so wanted to love it. I love biographies and memoirs. But this just didn't do it for me. I don't know how to say this with out sounding like a heartless, callous, insensitive creep. But I just didn't feel sorry for her! I feel for the real person, the real girl who actually went through this horrible experience, but I did not feel sorry for the girl in the book. Does that make any sense? 

The first 35 pages were before the abduction. It was all about her family, how her parents met etc. Then she went into this whole description about her horrible parents and how she thought they were neglecting her and how terrible it was that they divorced. I really felt like she was whining. So I started out not liking her right away.

She did go into some detail about her 8 1/2 years in captivity in her little "Dungeon" but there was also a lot of repetitiveness. I thought the whole book was very monotonous, I skimmed through a lot of it because I just wanted to get to her escape. 

Another problem I had with it was that she (as an adult now) kept analyzing her self back then and her abductor as if she were a Psychologist (and I am pretty sure she is not). I think it would have been better and more convincing if she had quoted real Psychologists and given them the credit.

For example - 

"Priklopil was mentally very ill. His paranoia went even beyond the level that you would expect from someone who puts an abducted child in a cellar. His fantasies of omnipotence blended with his paranoia. In many ways, he played the role of absolute ruler."

This had the potential to be a very sad and heart-retching book and, for me, it just fell short.