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Sometimes you have to be your own hero
Release Date: Oct 1, 2013
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Seventeen-year-old Sarah Meadows covers the walls of her bedroom with images of beautiful faces she clips from magazines—and longs for “normal.” Born with a port-wine stain covering half her face, all her life she’s been plagued by stares, giggles, bullying, and disgust. Why can’t she be like Diamond, the comic-book hero she created? Diamond would never let the insults in. That’s harder for Sarah.
But when she’s abducted on the way home from school, Sarah is forced to uncover the courage she never knew she had. Can she look beyond her face to find the beauty and strength she has inside, somehow becoming a hero rather than a victim? It’s the only way Sarah will have any chance of escaping the prison—both seen and unseen—that this deranged killer has placed around her.
But when she’s abducted on the way home from school, Sarah is forced to uncover the courage she never knew she had. Can she look beyond her face to find the beauty and strength she has inside, somehow becoming a hero rather than a victim? It’s the only way Sarah will have any chance of escaping the prison—both seen and unseen—that this deranged killer has placed around her.
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He plans to keep me here. Something snaps in my mind,
and I go at the door like I’m crazed, slamming into it with my body, not caring
about the way it jars my teeth, my bones, hurts my shoulder. I batter the door,
clawing and kicking and screaming until I’m sobbing with exhaustion.
I sink
to the floor, trembling and feeling sick. I hurt all over, I have to pee, and I
am intensely thirsty.
Don’t let me die here. Please. I never got to say goodbye.
Never got to tell Mom I’m sorry, tell Dad how lucky I am to have him for a
father. A whimper wrenches its way out of my throat. . . .
REVIEW
This is a very dark and harrowing story of one girl's strength and will to survive.
Sarah is a brave, sweet girl who is forced to face a cruel and unwelcoming world, day in and day out. She wants nothing more than to be normal; to be one of the Beautiful People, but the devastating turn her life takes will show her that behind the beauty can lie a monster.
My heart was in my throat for most of this story. I can only imagine how terrifying it must be, not knowing if you will live to see another day; if your captor will tire of you, and if he does how will your life end. Sarah's battle was only made that much worse by the fact that she was blind to the world throughout her ordeal. The horror she lived through at the hands of her abductor was heart-wrenching, and it took all her willpower, as well as mine, to keep it together.
Where Sarah may have seemed desperate and on the brink on crumbling, she was actually being smart, knowing how and when to please her captor, knowing that if she angered him in anyway he'd punish her; but the truth is that everything he did to her was punishment, even if his sick, twisted mind thought otherwise. Sarah showed true courage and fierce determination. When she could have easily fallen, broken by the torment she was put through, she rose above the darkness and fought for her life.
This book was one of hope, inspiration, and self-acceptance, as Sarah dug deeper than ever before, to find the beauty and courage in her soul. Her triumphs had me cheering, and I'm glad that even in the darkness she was able to find a little ray of light. One that taught her to love herself, and to hold close the people who truly mattered.
I recommend this story to everyone. It will make you think twice about whining about the small things in life, and you'll learn to appreciate everything you have. It is also a reminder that when you feel lost, broken or hopeless, don't give up, dig deep, because we all have a little Sarah in us, we just have to believe in ourselves, and believe that we're worth it.
It gets...
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Praise for Stained:
“Powerful. I raced through it, wanting to know if Sarah would find a way to escape both her captor and her self-doubts. A real nail-biter! “
- April Henry, New York Times-bestselling author of The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die
“A compelling, gutting, and ultimately triumphant read. You won't want to stop turning pages -- Or blink. Or breathe. -- until you reach the very last one.”
-Jennifer Brown, award-winning author of Hate List
“STAINED is dark, tense and gripping; a triumph of one girl's heart, soul and will to survive. Sarah's strength during her descent into terror kept me reading way past bedtime! “
-Laura Wiess, critically acclaimed author of Such a Pretty Girl
From the Author:
Like I did with SCARS and HUNTED, I drew on some of my own experiences of bullying, abuse, and trauma to write STAINED and to give it greater emotional depth. Like Sarah in STAINED, I experienced abduction, imprisonment, periods of forced starvation, mind control, and having my life threatened. And like Sarah, I tried hard to fight against my abuser, keep my own sense of self, and escape. I hope readers will see Sarah's strength and courage, and appreciate her emotional growth as she reclaims herself.
"I write the books I needed as a teen and couldn't find." CherylRainfield.com
Award-winning author of SCARS, STAINED, HUNTED, and Parallel Visions
Cheryl on why she wrote Stained:
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I love to read. Books nurture me, helped me survive the abuse I endured as a child and teen. I also love to write. I write fantasy books and edgy, realistic fiction for teens.
My fantasy books often hold hope that I need, and feel others might need, too, while my realistic fiction is gritty, intense, and emotional. All of my books have fragments of the abuse I experienced. I write about some of the harsh things teens go through...things that I think shouldn't be hidden. But I also write about healing, hope, and love, and finding courage and strength.
In SCARS (WestSide, 2010), Kendra must face her past and stop hurting herself before it's too late. It's my arm on the cover. There's a lot of me in SCARS; like my main character, Kendra, I am an incest survivor, I used self-harm to cope, and I'm queer. In my teen paranormal fantasy/dystopian, HUNTED (WestSide, Oct 2011), Caitlyn is a telepath in a world where that is illegal, and she must choose between saving herself or saving the world. Like Caitlyn, I know what it's like to have my life threatened, to face oppression, to experience torture, and to break free from cult or from a group of oppressors. And I know what it's like to have to decide between hiding my true self or being who I am, even if that means danger to myself. I drew on my experience with cults and ritual abuse in creating the world that Caitlyn lives in.
In STAINED, my upcoming YA novel from Harcourt (2013), Sarah, who has a port wine stain and some body image issues, is abducted and must find a way to rescue herself. Like Sarah, I was often imprisoned for long periods of time as a child, had my life threatened, and had to rely on my own strength to survive.
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