Girl, Stolen

Girl, Stolen (2010) is a young adult crime/thriller novel written by April Henry. It tells the story of Cheyenne Wilder, a blind 16-year-old girl who is abducted during a car theft, and of Griffin Sawyer, the teen who steals the car while unaware Cheyenne is inside it. The novel has received numerous awards since publication, including the Young Adult Library Services Association Best Fiction for Young Adults Award. The book was also selected as a Barnes & Noble Top Teen Pick. A sequel, titled Count All Her Bones, was published in 2018. Other works by Henry include The Night She Disappeared (2012), The Body in the Woods (2015), and The Girl I Used to Be (2016).

Plot Summary

Three years ago, at age 13, Cheyenne Wilder lost her mother and her sight in a car accident. She’s now 16 years old and ill with pneumonia; her stepmom, Danielle, has driven them to the shopping center to pick up medication. Choosing to stay in the backseat, Cheyenne is shocked when she realizes that the person getting into the driver’s seat and turning on the ignition is a stranger.

Griffin Sawyer, a teenage dropout, thinks he is stealing a car for his father, and freaks when he realizes Cheyenne is in the backseat. He drives out of the shopping center in a panic. When he pulls off the main road, Cheyenne attacks him, but he subdues her. She begs him to let her go, revealing that because she is blind, she will be unable to identify him.

Driving Cheyenne to his house in the woods, Griffin tells his father, Roy, what has happened, and they take her into the house and tie her up while deciding what to do next. Once Roy discovers that Cheyenne is the daughter of the president of Nike, he decides to ransom her.

As Roy leaves the house to contact the authorities, Griffin and Cheyenne get to know each other. He is curious about her blindness. He offers her food and water and, noticing that her health is deteriorating, finds some leftover medications for her to take.

Using her heightened senses and awareness, Cheyenne learns more about her kidnappers and her surroundings. Asking to use the restroom, she attempts an escape, but Griffin finds her hiding in the bathtub. Griffins shares his story with her. He believes that his mother left him after a meth lab explosion severely burned him some years ago. His father, who used to be a mechanic and made/sold meth, is violent and emotionally abusive. Roy and Roy’s friends, TJ and Jimbo, run a chop shop from the barn, which was why he was stealing cars.

While Griffin is making food and Cheyenne is resting, TJ attempts to rape her. Griffin stops the assault, and Cheyenne and Griffin grow closer. Griffin realizes that his father will not let Cheyenne go. Roy plans to orchestrate a ransom drop at three in the morning.

Cheyenne realizes that she must escape, and she lies awake until two in the morning, when she gets up and hits Griffin so he cannot stop her. She befriends Duke, the Sawyers’ guard dog, and uses him as a guide through the woods. She walks, tired and cold, for hours, and Duke runs off after a small animal. Griffin regains consciousness and finds her. He explains that he is going to help her. They continue walking toward the road, but Griffin falls and breaks his ankle. He cannot go on and begs Cheyenne to leave him and keep going.

TJ and Jimbo find Griffin in the woods, and the men argue with each other. The men reveal that Roy had killed Griffin’s mother years earlier and buried her body. Angry at his friend for calling him an idiot, TJ loses control and kills Jimbo. He leaves Griffin in the woods and runs off.

Cheyenne is getting close to the road when she hears a man’s voice telling her to freeze. The man tells her he is a policeman, who takes her to his car. In the car she realizes that the man is actually Roy, who disguised his voice. She grabs his gun and shoots him, although the injury is not serious, and then orders him out of the car. He tries to break through the window with a rock, but Cheyenne manages to drive a short way, find the cell phone that Roy dropped, and call the police. She keeps the doors locked and holds Roy off long enough for the police to find her.

Two weeks later, Cheyenne receives a phone call from Griffin, who has gone to live with his aunt. The police have apprehended Roy and TJ. Cheyenne’s family rescued the guard dog that helped her escape. Griffin asks whether he can call her again, and Cheyenne takes “a deep breath” and thinks “about her answer” (213).